site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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.

16
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

They've already confirmed that he didn't check a bag on that flight, he did not act to return the item when prompted by police, he has been formally indicted and placed on administrative leave. I think his goose is cooked.

Dems are done with this shit, they are swinging back to the center on race and sexuality issues and focusing on abortion and bread and butter liberal economic issues like healthcare and student debt forgiveness since the midterm proved it works. They passed a statute codifying same-sex marriage, and that is the face they want to put on "LGBTQ" issues, not this rolling disaster of a person. SCOTUS is going to deep-six affirmative action and that is not a winning issue for the Dems, plus it doesn't work to motivate their racial client groups, so don't expect any more BLM-branded racialist muckraking. We're going back to First Term Obama, minus the drone strikes.

From your lips to God's ears.

Though I wonder how that'll play out in the primary, if Biden doesn't run again. I do suspect that Dems can wash their hands clean enough of the past couple years to blunt Republican arguments.

Sure seems to me like Biden is running again.

I think that's extremely optimistic and mirrors a lot of what was said about Clinton repudiating the left excesses of the late-80s. Will come back to this later, but Left inc has always been very good at correcting oversteps by publicly signalling a change in course while simply preparing for another push in the original direction.

See how long repudiating BLM extremism lasted after 2015. They just quietly worked to make the next rollout overwhelming shock and awe while everyone else was thinking "thank God that's over with."

I dunno, Clinton actually did pass harsh mandatory minimum sentences, overhauled welfare to replace it with TANF which generally required people to get a job, etc. He wasn't just talk.