site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 7, 2025

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.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

From the top working down:

why cover up losses of the Bin Laden raid, even from a helicopter crash?

That's not the only thing about the raid they're covering up, the official story is almost certainly not completely true. Just as an example, the only reason we know they were using a stealth blackhawk, or that the stealth blackhawk even existed, is because they screwed up the landing and crashed one and then failed to sufficiently destroy it to render it unidentifiable. Had they not crashed that helicopter, the official story would be completely different and we'd never know. Why are there no pictures of Bin Laden's body? The official story is that after shooting him, they flew the body out to the iirc USS Harry Truman in the gulf, ran genetic tests to identify it, and immediately chucked it overboard. That strikes me as being incredibly weird, that no proof of his death has ever been offered and they destroyed the only conclusive evidence within 24 hours.

General killed by missiles

You could cover this up without involved more than a dozen people. You'd need to get his body out of Ukraine, into his quarters, and then not let anybody see it after it's "found" except an examining doctor you'd brief in to what's going on. His immediate family would probably find out, but immediate family of military killed in secret missions are generally very trustworthy, when was the last time you heard about some SEAL's wife blowing the lid off a secret mission?

faking missile hit on a ship by calling a collision

Agreed here, everyone on the ship would know what happened and that's too many low-level sailors to keep the secret.

covering up special forces killed during some off-the-book op

This is not uncommon, and there are declassified stories about doing this sort of thing from wars past. The cooperation of the dead soldier's comrades is more or less guaranteed, weeding out people who can't be trusted to not spill the details on how their friend died is one of the basic requirements of elite special forces selection and training.

covering up special forces killed during some off-the-book op

Student Visas - Corb Lund

I see you.

Thanks, absolutely banger song. Gonna listen to the rest of the album now.

For me, his other best songs are: Getting Down the Mountain, I want to be in the Calvary, Horse Soldier

Nice and similar: Keep your Rifle by your Side - Dan Romer, UnReal Estate - Compound Interest, Which Side are you on? - Alderon Tyran, Dawson's Christian - Duane Elms, Down in Yon Forest - Wovenhand, Another Hitler - Clem Tholet