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.

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
The first one to begin distrusting is the Perfidious Journalist.
Potentially-justifiable homicides in 2019 were adjudicated in the mass hysteria of 2020-21 BLM courts. 2021-22 courts were more likely to be biased against justifiable homicide claims when the assailant is Black, ie a large portion of the total homicides where justification claims are likely to be made. Even 2019 courts had social justice sympathies. As such, a higher rate of justifiable homicides when compared to 2019 tells us nothing on its face. The Journalist needs to take this into consideration or else clarify if they are talking about cases adjudicated in 2019 or cases occurring in 2019. They would also need to look at the number of gang-related shootings. According to Grok, there were 20% fewer gang-related homicides in 2024 than 2019. Given that almost no gang-related homicide is justifiable (and the clearance rate is hilariously low, and the perpetrators can’t mount a good legal defense), this fact on its own would make the increased rate of justifiable homicides seem larger even in the absence of an increase in justifiable homicides. As, if the total number of unjustified homicides have decreased, but justified homicides stay the same, then justified homicides will make up a higher percentage of total homicides — telling us nothing except that we got better at combatting gangs. Maybe due to deportations?
Yes, the laws are written this way because justice is written this way. Take it up with God. It’s unjust to jail people without evidence. This is a settled matter of justice. For most of civilizational history we didn’t even have DNA or recording devices, and no one freaked out about this. Perhaps the Journalist inhabits a social world filled with other journalists where everyone is constantly lying for gain and no one has honor. In such a world, it is assumed a priori that someone is lying, as a kind of default way of life; they are actually more likely to lie than otherwise. Or maybe this Journalist constantly wants to kill us but lacks the courage to do so, and consequently they imbue this urge on the common flock. But normal people aren’t like this. And even if they were, this assumption defeats the journalist’s own logic. If there are evil people constantly looking to kill others and get away with it with legal standing, then we would want to make it easier to make a justifiable homicide claim, because there’s a bunch of people constantly trying to kill us. Remember the fact of justice that it is better to let nine killers go than jail one innocent person as a murderer. This was Blackstone’s Ratio, Blackstone being the most important legal writer at the time of America’s founding.
I hate the
AntichristJournalist.More options
Context Copy link