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 -
Very minor tustle between two FSU students, one wearing an IDF shirt which provokes a somewhat hysterical reaction from a female student who pushes his phone.
This is an act of desperation, it's going to increase antisemitism because wildly disproportionate responses like this reveal the underlying criticisms made by "anti-semites" to be true.
This isn’t an ‘act of desperation’, this is an act of smiting an enemy when you hold the rod. Thé DOJ likely has standing orders to go after any left winger they can.
More options
Context Copy link
Its interesting because I think it’s gotten to the point that democrats can’t build a collation until this issue is solved and that they are all hoping that it will resolve itself by the midterms (or certainly by the next presidential administration). Starvation (assuming that is what is happening), is not sustainable over those time periods.
Breaking points had a highly adversarial interview come out with Slotkin earlier this week https://youtube.com/watch?v=AFrEJTFbSTc , which is interesting, but the most salient thing that came out of it was the degree to which the Senator is distancing herself from Israel. She didn’t come out and accept the framing (or remedies), desired by the shows audience, but as good as said that the (dem?) strategy going forward will be to try and legislate to width-hold offensive aid.
A completely cynical analysis (which is usually what does the trick democrat or republican) suggested that the democrats believe this will be enough to show their voters that the party was on the right side of history, because the war will end by the next election and it will be possible to blame it all on the Netanyahu administration (ie the problem isn’t the Israeli citizens but their leadership)/ aided and abetted by the republicans.
This suggests that if Great Leap Forward style starvation is occurring in Gaza, then it is actually very much in trumps interest to pressure Israel to admit MORE aid so that the current situation can be maintained as long as possible. This would simultaneously help them with the parts of MAGA that aren’t onboard with the current situation, while further undermining the democrat party messaging on this (by supporting humanitarian aid). This would also seem to be in Netanyahus interest as well since he is the obvious person to take the fall, although I don’t really have any knowledge about his domestic political situation (and whether or not admiring additional aid would destroy his coalition).
More options
Context Copy link
What criticisms have you made that this shows to be true?
Not just myself, but many have made the criticism that the US federal government is unduly influenced towards defending the political and cultural interests of Jews above and beyond other groups of people, including most notably White Americans.
I myself have pointed to other prominent instances of this, like Jewish groups getting hundreds of millions in handouts from DHS. There's actually been an update to that story recently- the Israel supplemental bill included a $390M increase to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program with $230M available through Sept 30, 2026. Schumer is pushing for an additional $500M bringing potential 2026 funding to $730M. A massive expansion of the program.
It is true that the US is a strong ally of Israel and spends money on Israel, and it is also true that the US government strongly opposes anti-semitism, including giving grants to some groups dedicated to fighting it.
It's not clear that 1) being critical of either of those things is anti-semitic, 2) that a university punishing a student who harassed a Jewish student is evidence of either of those things or is convincing other people that they are true, or 3) that this is convincing people to be anti-semitic in some further or additional sense.
That is, to the first, it is wholly possible to believe that the US alliance with Israel is wrong and that the US shouldn't spend money on minority issues without being anti-semitic. So even if this incident influences people to believe those things, it's not clear that increases anti-semitism, or reveals the criticisms made by anti-semites to be true.
Presumably anti-semites oppose money being spent on combating anti-semitism, even though it's possible to believe that money shouldn't be spent on combating anti-semitism for non-anti-semitic reasons. But you should not jump from that coincidental agreement to the conclusion that more people are supporting anti-semitism itself.
Here it might be worth the sober reminder that American rejection of anti-semitism appears to be rising, not falling. Per page 5, in 2021 60% of US adults say that anti-semitism was either a somewhat serious or very serious problem, which then rose to 68% in 2022, 74% in 2023, and then fell slightly to 72% in 2024. Noticeably this is not a significantly partisan issue - Democrats are somewhat more likely to say that anti-semitism is a serious issue, but it has equalised recently, and in 2024 70% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats say that it's a problem. Most also believe that anti-semitism has increased in recent years. This makes it at least superficially plausible, to me, that US institutions are coming down harder against anti-semitism because that reflects the genuine popular will of the country.
So the thesis that institutional crackdowns on anti-semitic actions is causing people to become more sympathetic to anti-semitism just seems contrary to the available data. It looks like the American people are becoming more concerned about and more opposed to anti-semitism.
How can the American people be getting more opposed to anti-semitism even while, at the same time, they believe that anti-semitism is becoming a bigger problem? Probably there is a range of understandings of the term (e.g. a Republican might say that anti-semitism is a big problem while thinking of pro-Palestinian protests; Zohran Mamdani says that anti-semitism is a "crisis" that "we have to tackle" but presumably does not have those protests in mind). But it's also possible - in fact, I think likely - that the very small number of militant anti-semites in America has become bolder and more assertive lately, and taken more actions. Thus it can simultaneously be true that anti-semitism, at least as measured in anti-semitic incidents, is increasing even as opposition to anti-semitism increases even more rapidly.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
When leftists used violence on rightists during the fire-alarm pulling era, it was not an act of desperation, but a demonstration of pure power. The extensive infrastructure used to justify and protect them has been dismantled. Now they experience equality for the first time, and call it oppression.
Similarly, this is not desperation, but an admiral being killed as encouragement to the others.
More options
Context Copy link
Why do we think the Trump admin wouldn’t grandstand in this way if someone wearing a MAGA hat was embroiled in this kind of thing with an annoying woke-presenting individual saying “Fuck Trump” or whatever?
That literally happens all the time and this kind of reaction to that sort of confrontation would be unimaginable and never happen.
That’s a third party video and there’s no evidence the MAGA hat wearer reported it to the police or turned it into a media event, nor that it was (like this) deliberate bait for the AG team’s X accounts.
When it has happened, the justice dept has 100% grandstanded about it. They just did so a few days ago for that case with the viral footage of some black people attacking that white couple in Cincinnati.
It's not just grandstanding, the administration has done remarkable things like detaining and attempting to deport students who committed no crimes for simply criticizing Israel. They have crushed the anti-Israel college protests, the eternally divided US Congress somehow always comes together to give more handouts to Jews and money/weapons to Israel. The contrast between government treatment of Jews and everyone also is so stark it's undeniable at this point.
Columbia's settlement with the government includes tens of millions of dollars of payments to undisclosed Jews at Columbia for having to bear the burden of people protesting a foreign government they are loyal to.
Pam Bondi ordered an investigation of this crime- note that it's an actual crime and not Jews just being offended for being criticized for wearing the T-shirt of a criminal organization. She also handed the investigation to appropriate authorities, compare that all the civil rights departments in the DOJ that are getting involved in the case of this girl who has been suspended/trespassed from campus and will almost certainly get expelled.
"Students". A guy who has spent more than 10 years as an undergraduate, mostly stirring up shit on campuses. A better description than "student" might be "foreign agent",
More options
Context Copy link
Is it usual for the Attorney General to personally get involved in requesting an investigation into a late night downtown brawl? Widely retweeted case involving perceived opponents of the current government, AG says she’s on it.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
There were plenty of cases like that back during Trump I, and nothing happened. Admittedly Trump himself was a lot less agentic back then, so maybe he would do something if such a case came up this time, but I don't know if they aren't happening anymore, or if they just blended into the background.
EDIT: After watching the video - wow that's extremely mild. I'd be really surprised if these things weren't regularly occurring at universities for all sorts of MAGA people, even now.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Schools and governments have already made it clear that responding to kind of thing oneself is verboten and will get the defender in trouble, so there's nothing left but either sucking it up or bringing in the authorities.
If they're going to roll out the tanks for every instance of woke on anti-woke violence, I'm here for it.... but surely you see how doing so for that specific group in particular, and much of anyone else, has somewhat unfortunate optics?
Personally I'd be up to rolling the tanks for all of them, but most of the time the authorities won't roll them when the attacked person is on the wrong side of the zeitgeist.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link