site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 1, 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.

5
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Stella O'Malley. Rowling only finances and shitposts, as far as I can tell, doesn't do any actual leadership.

Rowling only finances and shitposts, as far as I can tell, doesn't do any actual leadership.

I’d call that leadership. Paying for things and talking shit; I hadn’t thought of her before as the Tony Stark of trans-opposition.

She shitposts; you share low-effort provocative content; I provide thought leadership in a jocular and efficient manner.

Ok fine, but in that case I would say it pales in comparison to organizing workshops and therapy for parents of trans kids, trans kids themselves, detransitioners, all at a time of peak social-media censorship, and kicking off a remarkably well-run series of conferences. I don't know what is your experience of actually getting shit done, but whenever I tried taking on a leadership role, it was like squeezing water out of a stone. After a few experiences like that, I have mad respect for leaders who actually pull it off at a consistently high quality.

That's not to say I don't appreciate JK Rowling. Her high profile and sharp wit probably exposed a huge amount of normies to the subject, and made it all quite entertaining to boot. But it's not the same thing, I think.

Is she that prominent? I've never heard of her, though I'll look her up.

Everybody plugged into the transphere, either pro- or anti-, probably knows who she is. Normies might not, but they don't matter. Left-wing European politicians attend her conferences to keep an eye on what's going on. Her activity is what keyed me in on the tide turning on trans. I really doubt it would have happened (or at the very least - would have happened at the time it did) without her.

I've had some posts about my criticisms of the "organic" / "market-driven" / "democratic" view of society, and one of these days I might flesh out a compare-and-contrast to and "elite-driven" one, which I think is far more accurate.