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 -
I find this unlikely.
I spent some time in Virginia, Maryland, and South Central PA about 20 years ago.
I can absolutely corroborate the profound weirdness of the crimes that started occurring as the illegal immigrant population increased in a given area.
We always had a lot of bar fights, domestics, and drunk driving arrests, but as the area started getting flooded with migrant labor, the profile of the crimes started changing.
There were not one, not two, but three distinct men who were arrested for stabbing women in the ass in stores. Specifically women, specifically in the ass, and specifically in stores.
We had another rash of complaints about a serial truck bed shitter.
Later, we had a rash of cattle mutilations that turned out to be... I guess you'd call it poaching? Rustling? Either way, it was illegal immigrant orchard workers cutting their own steaks from the local dairy cows.
Don't even get me started on the cock fighting and dog fighting operations.
Believe me when I say that the character of a place does change once the illegal immigrant laborer population reaches a certain critical mass.
I live in that general area, and none of this sounds remotely familiar or believable. Are there a lot of illegals, and crime (especially in the Baltimore -DC corridor)? Of course. But all these tall tales about one town after another being "invaded" by mustachioed Mexicans beating up the high school students, roads swarming with drunken gangsters, museums literally being torn up like an SNL sketch of Great Replacement Theory?
Obviously asking for places and news articles would be tantamount to asking someone to dox themselves, so happily, no one will ever be required to prove any of this and people will believe it or not according to what they already believed.
Serial butt stabber sought in Fairfax County
They did get him, he indeed was an immigrant
I don't know about there being two more.
Sure, I believe an immigrant once went around stabbing people in the butt. I even heard about that one at the time. Because it was quite newsworthy.
This seems like some remarkably bad faith on your part.
First, you claim that nothing like this happens. Then you Darkly Hint that no one will provide examples, because they have a convenient excuse not to do so.
Then two people provide an example, despite your Dark Hinting.
After that, you employ what I can only call a reverse isolated demand for rigor to blow it off as an isolated incident and not useful as any kind of corroboration for lived experience. You and other mods have banned people for that kind of bad faith behavior in the past.
At this point, I'm going to ask you outright. What would you actually require to believe anything that I have said? Because from where I'm standing, it seems like your mind is already made up.
You (and WC) aren't just asking me to believe isolated incidents. You are asking me to believe that everywhere immigrants exist, they are transforming entire cities and turning them into third world hell holes, and hardly anyone is noticing all these horrible crimes and community destruction. It's not that any one story is hard to believe. It's the parade of horribles, more horrible incidents happening one after another than most people see in a lifetime.
I am actually not pro immigration, or at least not pro mass immigration. I believe they generally increase crime, put a burden on social services, and negatively impact society.
But it's kind of like the guy who really hates black people and is constantly telling stories about how everywhere he goes, at work, at the store, in his neighborhood, everywhere, there's always a story about a black person doing something awful. Often something cartoonishly awful.
Do I believe one or two of those stories? Sure, maybe. Do I believe black people often do awful things, and at a disproportionate frequency? Yeah. Do I believe that he is constantly running into black people being nothing but horrible? No. At a certain point you recognize a pattern to the stories. They are more of a vibe than accurate narrative.
That is... That is an uncharitable take on what I said.
First of all, I'm not WC. Please do not treat me like I am WC. Please do not put WC's words in my mouth. Please do not assume that my intentions and his are the same. We are not the same person. We have different goals and intentions.
Now that's out of the way, you're reading a much stronger version of what I wrote than what I intended to write. Did I say "hellhole" anywhere? No, I did not. That's your interpretation through the lens of whatever other biases you have. WC might have said it, but I did not. I didn't mention Black Americans either. I'm not even sure why you're bringing it up now.
What I did say is that, in my experience, crimes get weirder as illegal immigrant migrant labor increases in small communities. I provided some examples of that. I did not make inferences about larger civilizational impacts, because once again, I am not WC and I do not share in his motivations.
All I can say is that you can tell me that I'm wrong, but I'm still the one that spent an afternoon hosing human shit out of my cousin's toolbox.
Okay. I believe that. Are you satisfied?
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
More options
Context Copy link