site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 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.

9
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Maybe they failed because they were trying to copy McDonalds too closely? Skip the "we give you a third of a pound for the same price as a quarter of a pound" and instead emphasise "fresh beef, better taste, superior value".

The Third Pound just sounds like really bad marketing, because they were chasing the established hold McDonalds had with their quarter-pounders. I could easily see someone going "but I don't want more meat in my burger; a quarter-pounder is big enough for me!" or if they did want more meat, then they'd go for two burgers.

It's like someone trying to compete against Coke by going "we're just like Coke only we have bigger bottles" - that's not different enough to make me switch from Coke. What's unique about your product?

That anecdote does sound too much like "it can't be our fault the product failed, it was the dumb consumers!" Tell that to New Coke 😁 Even if your customers are dumb, they are still your (potential) customers so if this approach isn't working, scrap it and go for one that does: "bigger and better for the same price!" Don't call it a third pounder, compare "we have over 5 ounces of prime fresh beef in every burger versus 4 ounces of processed meat in our rivals" to sell it, not mess around with trying to copy the brand name of a McDonalds product that is already well-established. Call it the Big Beautiful Burger! 🤣