site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 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
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Sir, there's been four new Nazi/Hitler/antisemitic issues in the conservative community in just the past day

Following the recent Politico expose on the Young Republicans groupchat leak among mid 20s-30s leaders of the organization containing comments about gas chambering their political opponents and antisemitic remarks like this

“I was about to say you’re giving nationals to [sic] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest,”

In the followup to this, yes you heard it right, at least four new antisemitic and/or Nazi controversies in the past day or so.

A flag with a swatiska embedded in it was spotted in the office of Representative Dave Taylor.  Rep. Taylor has called it out and condemned it, and it's quite possible he never noticed it before himself but it does seem to be another sign of the embedded antisemitic and pro nazi rhetoric in lower level staffers if one of them put it up.

“The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms,” Taylor said in a statement

Additionally, the Border Patrol posted a video on an Instagram containing an antisemitic slur. While the higher ups of the border patrol likely don't have much to do with what gets posted on the social media, it's again another bad sign that the lower levels who coordinate posts and approve them are antisemitic. Someone had to specifically pick that particular verse of that particular version of that particular song, they knew what they were posting and whatever approval process they use, the others would have heard the lyrics and yet signed on.

The third controversy is the most explicit of them all. Myron Gaines, host of the Fresh and Fit podcast (1.58 million subscribers on YouTube alone) posted

Yeah we like Hitler. No one gives a fuck what you woke jews think anymore.

Bro was a revolutionary leader and saved germany. The jews declared war on Germany first.

If can israel deny a genocide with 4k video proof, I'm questjoning everything you guys have said about the painter during WW2.

Now, I never would have imagine that the word woke includes "thinking the Holocaust is real and Hitler is bad", but that seems to be where we are at now. Gaines is also a former employee of the DHS, which is just another point of evidence of low level gop aligned staffers having pro Nazi/antisemitic views.

But in fact, all of this seems to be par for the course, according to Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab. who also wades into the ring of antisemitic Holocaust denialism with comments like

A Jew scolding me about creating fictional collectivist, grievance-based narratives is projection at its finest.

That's right, at least two major conservative names have directly engaged in unashamed pro Nazi/Holocaust denialism/etc rhetoric in response to the group chat leak and both of them strongly believe that many other high level conservatives agree with them (Myron's use of "We like Hitler and Torba saying it's normal).

As Richard Hanania (Writer of "The Origins of Woke" who has been in many conservative spaces before) explained months before the leak, this is actually pretty common. As he's said before, the two types of comments he tends to get "it can't be that bad" and "lol that's exactly what it's like" such as this agreement from National Review reporter James Lynch

Everyone involved with the young right already knew this was happening.

Hanania was first to articulate it in depth from a place of familiarity.

What's interesting is that the one thing both the Nazi denouncers (Hanania/Lynch/etc) and Nazi defenders (Myron/Torba/etc) here both seem to agree on, is that this is common among the young right. There seems to be a broad consensus that this gropyer antisemitic Nazism is growing among conservatives, especially young ones. We've seen this with Kanye and his descent into Nazism, we've seen this with John Reid and Mike Robinson both exposed over their Nazi fetish. We've seen this with Tucker Carlson and Daryl Cooper. The rapid growth of figures like Nick "six million cookies" Fuentes, Ian Carroll and Theo Von. In fact a neo Nazi inspired kid was even behind a recent school shooting in Colorado a few months ago

EW Erickson says https://x.com/EWErickson/status/1978812093773041964

This is why the “no enemies to the right of me” stuff cannot work. There are enemies there and we cannot be silent. This stuff is festering and needs to be excised from the right.

Ben Shapiro says that unity with radicals will destroy the right wing as it pushes moderate Americans away.

Right wing conservative libertarian speaker Phil Magness says

The same people calling for conservative "unity" in the wake of the Hitler chat group leaks also spent the last decade trying to purge classical liberals & free market economics from the conservative movement.

They don't want "unity." They want room for Nazis in that movement.

So with all this recent controversy, how big of a Nazi problem is actually festering, and why do the Nazis seem to feel so comfortable in modern conservativism? They even seem to be dropping hints at the highest levels if the border patrol video was intended as a dog whistle to be dropped before deleting. Is this growing widespread agreement (from Hanania to Torba) that this is just the tip of the iceberg among young conservatives accurate? Will this growing trend of Nazi radicalism destroy the Republicans chances among moderates in the future like embracing left wing radicalism hurt Biden? And how do the non Nazi conservatives and moderates balance fighting off Nazi accusations from the left also working to stem this apparant rise of unashamed nazism and Holocaust denialism?

  • -44

On the first two points, I don't know what's going on with the flag (apparently Taylor's office claims that some outside actor put them up in multiple offices, and most were removed), and I can't say I'm a fan of the clumsy edgelording from various government social media accounts lately. I don't care if being the social media dogsbody for a government department is boring, you're supposed to be boring. The other two "examples" are worth correcting:

Myron Gaines, host of the Fresh and Fit podcast (1.58 million subscribers on YouTube alone). Gaines is also a former employee of the DHS, which is just another point of evidence of low level gop aligned staffers having pro Nazi/antisemitic views.

For those who don't know, "Myron Gaines" is a /fit/ and Misc meme ("mirin' gains"), and the screen name of a Sudanese-American Muslim manosphere YouTuber. Think knockoff Andrew Tate and you'd have it on the nose, but even his knockoffs can get huge followings nowadays. He had Nick Fuentes on back in 2023, so has been JQing for a while, and is extremely pro-Palestine. The """connection""" that OP draws to the GOP is that, before becoming a podcaster in 2020, Gaines was a DHS special agent - i.e. a regular employee of the department, with no connection to the Republican Party whatsoever.

But in fact, all of this seems to be par for the course, according to Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab. who also wades into the ring of antisemitic Holocaust denialism with comments like

Gab and Torba are far out of even the hardline fringe of the professional Republican Party, and have been for almost a decade. Gab is a classic example of "free speech platform that doesn't just get witches but exclusively markets itself to witches" - they started out aligned with Spencer and the Charlottesville Crew, and have only gone further off the deep end since. Torba claimed that Trump explicitly refused to join the platform, and the most recent connection to the GOP seems to be the Mastriano campaign paid them $5k for promotion in 2022, which they then disavowed and apologized for. It's basically a sump pit for online crazies who can't even stay on 4chan (naturally, Gab has since gone big on Qanon), with no relevance to GOP politics whatsoever.

As Richard Hanania (Writer of "The Origins of Woke" who has been in many conservative spaces before)

You are trolling. A faux-naive/faux-serious description of "Richard Hanania, writer of 'The Origins of Woke'" could be a little flourish one time, twice makes it pretty obvious you're trying to build a schtick. What I find amazing about posters like you, AlexanderTurok, that one other more forgettable EHC poster, etc. is that you seem to genuinely believe you're coming on here and winning arguments and unmasking the chuds. The thing is, you're just not very good at trolling - all you're doing is making yourself and the little Hananiac niche look silly and obnoxious. You should probably spend more time studying how Richard does it.

Gaines is also a former employee of the DHS which is just another point of evidence of low level gop aligned staffers having pro Nazi/antisemitic views.

I have no idea who Gaines is and I care even less, but as a former low-level public service minion that part made me laugh. The DHS in the USA is a hive of scum and villainy, huh? If you're a low-level employee, then you must be... dun-dun-dun... a Nazi!

Let's take a look at the demographics of the DHS (ain't statistics wonderful?) All them low-level female, disabled, BIPOC employees who are secret Nazis! Tidying up the table a bit:

White (Non-Hispanic or Latino) 51.7%
Hispanic or Latino 22.8%
Black or African American (Non-Hispanic or Latino) 16.7%
Asian 6.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native 1.0%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 0.7%
Two or More Races 0.8%

Male 65.4%
Female 34.6%
Individuals with Reported* Disabilities 15.4%
Individuals with Targeted** Disabilities 1.3%

*"Reported disabilities" includes employees who self-identify as an individual with a disability or targeted disability ...and employees who were appointed under hiring authorities that take disability into account, i.e., 30% or More Disabled Veteran Appointment and Schedule A Hiring Authority, who have not otherwise self-identified as having a disability.
** "Targeted disabilities" are a subset of reportable disabilities that the Federal Government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis. Targeted disabilities listed on the SF-256 form include: developmental disability, traumatic brain injury, deaf or serious difficulty hearing, blind or serious difficulty seeing, missing extremities, significant mobility impairment, partial or complete paralysis, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, intellectual disability, significant psychiatric disorder, dwarfism, and significant disfigurement.

Federal workforce in general, stats from 2023:

Sixty percent of the federal workforce identified as white compared to 76% in the private sector. Nearly 19% of the federal workforce identified as Black and 10% identified as Hispanic compared to 13% and 19% of the U.S. labor force, respectively.

While 40% of the federal workforce was comprised of individuals who identify as part of a racial or ethnic minority group, this number diminishes significantly at higher levels on the General Schedule scale. People of color make up much of the federal workforce in positions from the GS-2 to GS-6 level, these grade levels typically comprise lower and entry-level administrative positions. White employees make up much of the workforce above the GS-7 level, which consists of mid-level technical and first-level supervisory positions and top-level technical and supervisory positions.

Twenty-six percent of career Senior Executive Service members identified as a person of color in fiscal 2023, a small increase from 25% in the previous year. Of the federal workforce that was not on the GS scale, 37% identified as a person of color.

The overall federal workforce was 55% male and 45% female, compared to 53% male and 47% female in the total U.S. labor force.

Women made up the majority of the federal workforce in GS-3 to GS-9 positions. Notably, 73% of GS-6 employees are female. Men made up much of the workforce above the GS-10 level, the SES and positions not on the GS pay scale.

Women made up the majority of the federal workforce in GS-3 to GS-9 positions, while men made up the majority of the workforce above the GS-10 level, the SES and positions not on the GS pay scale.

Individuals who have served in the uniformed military service constituted a considerable segment of the federal workforce. At the end of fiscal 2023, 30% of federal employees were veterans compared to 5% of the total employed U.S. civilian labor force. In the same year, 25% of new federal hires were veterans.

In fiscal 2023, 21% of the federal workforce identified as having a disability or serious health condition. Of those employees, 2.7% indicated having a targeted or serious health condition and 7.8% identified as having other disabilities or serious health conditions. The other 10.5% of employees with a disability had either an unlisted or undisclosed disability.

Thirty-two percent of federal employees hold a bachelor’s degree, and another 21% have an advanced degree. Federal workers possess bachelor’s and advanced degrees at a higher rate than the overall U.S. labor force—53.8% to 40.4% in 2023.

So - feds are slightly less white and Hispanic and slightly more black than the general workforce, slightly more male, especially in higher-level/more technical grades (the higher up you go, the whiter and more male the management levels get, which tracks with private industry as well), more likely to be veterans, and somewhat better educated than the general workforce.

Pick your Nazis out of that.