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 -
Artillerymaxxing is what you do when you can't maneuver and have an excess of shells and barrels relative to other assets. Ukraine going artillery isn't due to inherent superiority, its due to availability. Even now we've seen a reduction in Russian artillerymaxxing because artillery spares aren't as rich as they used to be and glide bombs have proven to be a much more effective weapon at the operational and even tactical level. Artillery duels have given way to FPV ambushes or glide-bomb centric strongpoint degradation.
Stocking artillery isn't great because primers degrade, but for the west they just churn out new bags, whereas for the soviet stuff you can't tell if the shell is dead untill its inside the tube. Yes, soviet stuff stays in better shape longer than fiddly western stuff, but slathering stuff in cosmoline is its own utter hell and even rugged 80s era stuff doesn't survive 40 years. 10-2 year preservation windows could be stretched under PERFECT conditions to maybe 30-35 years, so the vast parks of Russian equipment hit a reactivation wall. Artillery is used early, used fast, and now gives way to whatever can actually be produced. Given the vids of the fronts, that ends up being Chinese golf buggies and FPV drones, not T14 terminators.
More options
Context Copy link