This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Trump attacking Georgia governor Brian Kemp and his wife during rallies and on social media, and Kemp's response to this is a lame "We need to focus on Kamala!" (paraphrased):
https://x.com/BrianKempGA/status/1819851284343832838
The behavior of Republican politicians regarding Trump is absolutely fascinating. Guy is insulting your wife, your governorship, your very character in front of millions, and you're openly announcing that you'll still be voting for him. Exact replay of Ted Cruz falling meekly into line after Trump loudly deemed his wife unfuckable.
At what point would these guys actually draw a line in the sand?
It's hilarious because these Repubs think of themselves as the party of Real Men, but this is absolutely womanly behavior.
Well, maybe not womanly, if Kemp's wife has said she's not voting for Trump even if her husband is, lol.
Ironically, I think more of them might cowboy up if they actually thought Trump had a permanent movement in place to maintain power over time. Right now Trump is strong enough that you can't control a winning GOP without controlling MAGA, but there's no MAGA bench behind him. Desantis, Rubio, Cruz, Kemp all think that Trump is going to disappear. Maybe in November 2024, maybe in January 2028, maybe at any given moment if the bullet had been aimed a cunt hair to the right or if a glob of Wendy's-induced-cholesterol gets stuck in the wrong tube. And when Trump shuffles off the scene, the Never-Trumpers will not inherit the party. No matter how he goes, Nikki Haley's career is over, she gambled on Trump getting sent to prison and lost. They're all angling to pick up the pieces and unite the party after Trump leaves, Kemp and Cruz think they just need to endure Trump for a few years then they'll be freed.
Pointless obscenity
You're literally waging the culture war.
"Cunthair" is bog-standard slang for the smallest perceptible distance on construction sites (and, I've heard, in many other red-tribe blue collar industries), and language policing is one of the classic culture war tactics.
If my guess is correct, you would defend the use of African American Vernacular English, and object to most attempts to suppress it. I think that's a decent policy, and also apply it to Construction Worker Vernacular English.
I dunno man. Construction workers are obviously among the most crass in all of America, so there's some bias right away, and even to this day, the word "cunt" is seen as the most genuinely offensive and vulgar and strongest bad word without any contest. "Cunt hair" is doubly obscene because, you know, pubic hair isn't really typical in polite conversation, and it forces the meaning to be physical and sexual rather than merely colloquial. So you really are double layering there. No culture warring necessary. In a forum assuming it's deliberate antagonism is for sure the default.
Not that I think we should be schoolmarming each other over naughty words, but I’m pretty sure that title belongs to “nigger” for most normies.
I’d say “cunt”’s like an inverse Scalabrine (who is closer to LeBron than you are to him) in being closer to “faggot,” “tranny,” or “retard” than it is to “nigger,” maybe even ranking behind them. After all, “cunt”’s featured in a lot of well-memed quotes in Game of Thrones-related subreddits, hard to imagine “nigger” being thrown around so casually and merrily on Reddit. Even for comedians, "nigger" is viewed as an edgy, risky thing to say in a way that "cunt" is not; a certain Seinfeld alumnus experienced this the hard way.
As @The_Nybbler mentioned, “cunt hair” in this context is less offensive as a humorous unit of measurement—not more—much less “doubly” so. It’s not like “dickhead” or “asshole” are twice as obscene as calling someone a “dick” or an “ass,” and those don’t have measurement-specific niche use-cases. Well, not yet at least, perhaps one day they can come to serve as common units of radii.
Plus, the offensiveness of a bald “cunt” without “hair” can be mitigated—or even canceled out—by throwing a “white” in front of it when describing or insulting a woman.
Eh, I think this is a reddit thing. Lots of people who are at least more normie than a typical motteizean would find 'cunt' incredibly offensive and 'nigger' merely very offensive. These people skew female and would probably not use either term themselves. Like, my grandma wouldn't be happy to hear either word, but she'd get a lot more offended at 'cunt'. Honestly it seems like the normies accept that 'nigger' sometimes gets used non-offensively- mostly by blacks themselves- but that 'cunt' almost never is.
It's not just a Reddit thing, as the comedian examples illustrate.
If I had a Twitter account under my real name and called a black person a "nigger," even if such a black person is on video battering/homiciding someone—for example, sucker-punching an Asian American grandparent on the street—I'd almost certainly get canned from my job within a business week, perhaps the next business day.
Whereas, if I called an woman a “cunt,” I'd probably still be let go, but at lesser probability and immediacy. If I stuck a "white" in front of the "cunt" in calling some chick a "white cunt," my survivorship probability might very well be above 50%. I could probably fend that off.
It's mostly in "nigga" form when it comes to black usage. But as always, Who? Whom? Blacks can also otherwise use terms like "cunt" more freely with lesser or no repercussions. For idpol reasons for several decades now, black men (and women) have more latitude by which to call women bitches, whores, sluts.
For the most part, the only thing blacks have been called out, and on occasion faced repercussions for, in the mainstream is alleged antisemitism.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link