site banner
PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   26178 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 25, 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.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

You could say the same thing about the Pyramids, and yet, there they are.

Obviously the Pyramids are there, you can look at them. Not so for the "gas chambers" or alleged burial sites for millions of people. The remains have never been found. Imagine if the Pyramids were never found and they were never mentioned in any documentation contemporary to their existence.

Are you telling me, that of all people, Germans are not organized?

No in fact the opposite, they were incredibly organized and the level of detail that went into drafting orders, budgeting, planning- the sheer amount of bureaucracy was actually astonishing. The notion that the most sensitive and secretive operation in the entire history of the Third Reich escaped all trace of written orders, planning, budgeting, and procedure that was standard operating procedure among the regime, and was instead coordinated with "mind-reading" among the bureaucracy, is incredibly unlike the German mode of organization.

Have you actually visited Auschwitz and Treblinka? Seen the physical evidence for yourself?

Or are you, to put a blunt point on it, blowing smoke up your ass?

No, you'd probably have some pithy response to that. Okay. How about you go to Tuol Sleng? Or you can go to the Balkans where freshly uncovered mass graves are something of a regular occurrence.

I am very right-wing. I have resided on very right-wing parts of the internet. What I am saying is that you are being a coward. You lack the honest and brutal character of a Serb, who, confronted with war crimes, will go: "It's good that it happened, and we regret that we didn't get enough of you." The fact that you are evading and speaking of apologia is evidence that you know that the crime of genocide is something to be ashamed of.

The lady protests too much, methinks.

To put it in frogtwitter terms, you are a theorycel, an academycuck. If you had the balls, you'd be with the other WN shitposters calling for a second Holocaust. Even the pro-Palestinians have more courage than you. David Irving-style denialism is a relic of the past, and you look ridiculous. The cool zoomers who want to put the Jews in the oven right now sneer at you for even bothering to engage in academic debate in the first place.

If you're not even at the most extreme edge of the Overton window, why bother?

Lay off the ad hominem, please.

I understand that dealing with SS is frustrating to say the least. You’ve still got to follow the civility rules. Take a one-day break.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats