site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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.

13
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

**A quick poll.. do we have a poll mechanism ? ** We should.

**Were you aware **that Woodward of Watergate fame was, before his journalistic career an officer in the Navy, one trusted enough to handle nuclear codes?

After Yale, Woodward began a five-year tour of duty in the United States Navy.[8] During his service in the Navy, Woodward served aboard the USS Wright, and was one of two officers assigned to move or handle nuclear launch codes the Wright carried in its capacity as a National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA).[9] At one time, he was close to Admiral Robert O. Welander, being communications officer on the USS Fox under Welander's command.[

Were you aware 'Deep Throat' of Watergate was deputy director of FBI, someone who had many reasons to hate Nixon ?

I was aware of the latter, but not of the former. I thought he was just a young journalist, not a young journalist fresh off from fed-land with a top secret clearance.

There's this incredible segment by Tucker Carlson that basically lays out a theory Nixon was not as big a crook as we think, and that he was set up because he tried to keep the government subordinate to its notional head.

To sum it up, the claim is that Watergate was a palace coup, where the secret services overthrew the US government, and have kept it under control ever since through influence operations.

It does look persuasive to me. Too persuasive, if you were pulling a coup of this sort, would you make one of the protagonists a retired naval officer with that kind of background ? Ok, I'm done expressing my confusion and astonishment with what I've learned today. If this isn't content fit for themotte, please let me know!


Supplementary viewing: Interview with 'Kay Griggs' , talking about deep state influence ops and what the military gets up to in secret. Was allegedly filmed during her divorce as a 'dead man' measure. Her husband was involved with it and drank / talked too much to her.

It's eight hours, I mean, anyone wants a rabbit hole to fall down through. I feel like I should watch it at some point, though there's probably an analysis somewhere.

It seems to be fairly tame conspiracy stuff: some classic secret societies, homosexuals, political murder, drug running, saudis, etc. However, the nice lady talking about is, if she says who she is, in a position where she may have actually learned something. If she made it up, it's a great performance, if she hasn't, it's not very surprising.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4fdS5cdtPOA

To sum it up, the claim is that Watergate was a palace coup, where the secret services overthrew the US government, and have kept it under control ever since through influence operations.

Maybe this is already answered by the proponents of this theory, but why didn't Nixon say anything?

Maybe this is already answered by the proponents of this theory, but why didn't Nixon say anything?

Was there any media favorable to him ? "The press is the enemy, the professors are the enemy, the establishment is the enemy. Write that down on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it".

Heh, seems like he had a problem with the 'Octopus' before it was even defined!. That's Neema Parvini's extension of Yarvin's 'Cathedral' - an attempt at describing the managerial regime [1]that is more sovereign in western democracies than the elected representatives, and acts primarily through the combination of influence in bureaucracies & NGOs & corporations.

Because maybe then he'd not have gotten off lightly. He got pardoned, nothing really happend to him except his reputation was ruined.

Had he tried to play hardball, it could have caused a far bigger upset, which is not what you want when you're engaged in a cold war and have appearances to keep up.

Also. he might have ended up in prison had he refused to play ball.

Or just perhaps ended up being felled by a sudden heart attack from all that stress?

[1]: article by Malcolm Kyeuyne, aka 'Tinkzorg'. He's written some good essays, analysing situation through more or less sane-ish marxist lens but has recently been seen moving towards more respectability recently, by using his modest yet capable intellect writing hitpieces on the online right for Compactmag. Why exactly going after someone twitter anon with 140k followers who goes by 'Raw Egg Nationalist' is even necessary is .. unclear.

So Nixon agreed to not publicize evidence of a coup, agreed not to provide evidence of his innocence regarding his involvement with the Watergate break-in, agreed to resign in disgrace with a forever burnt reputation, etc etc because he assumed that the press would not believe anything he had to say. He further agreed to keep quiet for the next 20 years of his life and he did not confide his knowledge to anyone to publish after his death. Is this a fair summary of your position? If not, which part would you disagree with?

because he assumed that the press would not believe anything he had to say

"Believe"? The theory is that they're part of the conspiracy.

Ok, is that the only disagreement you have with my summary? If so, do you believe "Nixon resigned in disgrace after trying and failing to cover up his link to a burglary at the DNC headquarters" is too implausible an explanation?

That's the neatest part of it; it's even the literal truth. Just not the whole of it.