site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 30, 2024

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.

9
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Rotherham, H1B's and the news cycle on X

On X (formerly Twitter), Elon likes to say "You are the media now". I think, he's... kinda right.

One thing that always amazed me about the mainstream media was their ability to control the news cycle. You'd wake up one Monday, and all of a sudden the entire media would be talking about one story like it's the most important thing in the world. Everyone is using the exact same language, repeating the same facts, etc... You'd be forgiven for thinking that a government propaganda bureau is directing it all from a central office. But the media wasn't actively conspiring, it was just group think and herd-following.

What's more, it mattered. Stories that got major media exposure led to real action from political and corporate leaders. The summer of George Floyd may have been the platonic ideal of this.

Well, X seems to have its own news cycle now.

Last week, X was aflame with a intra-right culture war between those who support and those who oppose high-skill immigration, especially from India. Feelings were hurt, accounts were banned, and it didn't die down until Trump made a statement.

This week, the big story is the Rotherham grooming gangs. I'm not exactly sure why it's being revisited now, but every other story in my feed is about the horrific crimes and the massive coverup which extends in England to this day. Perhaps people smell blood in the water. Kier Starmer, the incredibly unpopular PM of the UK, was head of CPS during the critical years. It seems he chose not to aggressively prosecute many of the monsters who gang-raped 13 year olds.

In my opinion, X provides a better platform for ideas to percolate into the public's consciousness. In the past, unless a story was "too big to ignore" like the Trump assassination, corporate newsrooms could and did bury stories that reflected their political team in a negative light. This can't happen on X. Moreover, a lot of the coverage of news events is less retarded on X (depending on who you follow of course). I'm sure there were lots of bad takes during the H1B kurfluffle, but I didn't see many. I saw a lot of nuanced but fearless conversation that went a lot deeper than anything you'd be likely to see on ABC or in Time Magazine.

I think that there is some special sauce in the technology.

Traditional journalism is top down. We (the authority figures) tell you what to think. On the other extreme, discussion sites like Reddit allow anonymous accounts to speak with the same authority as established ones. As a result, they are gamed by bots, and flooded with low value opinions. X seems to be a hybrid. Authority figures can post to their audience, but they cannot do so without getting pushback from others. When using it, I somehow feel connected to the people and ideas that matter.

I'll probably have to delete the app again in a few weeks.

The rotherham news is fairly gruesome, i was aware of this abck in 2019 and am happy that more are talking about this. I cannot imagine even India as a country letting people get away with rape of underage girls the way UK did. Maybe I am wrong and all of what I read was propoganda but it seems fairly consistent with what you see back in the subcontinent, the UK should deport people en masse at least those who did touch girls but I am not sure if they will do anything at all.

You have the usual suspects hand waving and downplaying the entire incident because they are either leftists or from the subcontinent which is not surprising. There is no punishment severe enough for people who do this. here is Sulaiman Ahmad, a friend of Nick fuentes who is trying his best logical fallacies to blame da joos for mass rapes, tom holland living being the personification of soy morality. I wish I were surprised but I have been too online now.

You even had cases of people shotgun marrying girls to their groomers. Twitter allowing Jared Taylor back again this time and having Elon publicly tweeting about this all day is a very good sign. Still unsure if this will lead to anything substantial.

Maybe I am wrong and all of what I read was propoganda but it seems fairly consistent with what you see back in the subcontinent, the UK should deport people en masse at least those who did touch girls but I am not sure if they will do anything at all.

What I am wondering here is why you are talking about India if it were actually Pakistanis, at least according to the few articles I've read. Of course this is also the subcontinent, but why aren't the Indians against their enemies? I assumed India and Pakistan really don't like each other? Do they want to be blamed unjustly? Or is the culture regarding this behavior similar enough that they don't really mind being put together?

The people who did this should have the shit beaten out of them followed by a public hanging (short drop method, it needs to be painful pour encourager les autres). It's the only way to keep those like them under control and the sooner westerners recognize this the better.

Well said.