site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 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.

7
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This makes me think about the bravado culture that many blacks, who most people here wouldn't consider problematic, get trapped into. It is such a pervasive, and sometimes unavoidable, mindset. You will occasionally hear other blacks talk about the absurdity of it, and how the only real way to win a disagreement is through violence. We've all seen a convenience store video or two (or a hundred) of a young black male shooting another young black for the grave sin of bumping into him without apologizing, or something similar. The only recourse in these areas is violence and/or revenge violence, and the cycle just continues to perpetuate itself. They are told from a young age that whites, and more specifically police, are the enemy and not to be trusted. The result is that the only real justice to be had is the street kind. The blacks that win through nonviolent means, via an argument, or a scoff or anything else are dealt with in the same violent way so that the only real way to win is through violence. It's a bucket of crabs culture that needs serious intervention, but one that won't accept the hard truths being said from their white "enslavers." They'd rather latch onto the enablers who tell them the problem is someone else's fault and not theirs. It's a very human thing to not want to accept accountability when a short term path of less resistance presents itself constantly.

I do feel for the blacks who recognize the dysfunction and who criticize it. They are stuck in a uniquely difficult position. They criticize and hate the norms around them, and they are predictably labeled as sellouts or worse by their own people. "You a bitch." They have more in common personality-wise with the average white but they also know they don’t fully fit into white communities either, because they carry the background and experiences that their white peers don’t. That limbo position has to be psychologically brutal, and I know a lot of people quietly live in it.

I believe Ta-Nehisi Coates has an anecdote from when he was a young man, new to the white-collar world, where basically he was ready to physically fight some guy who was arguing with him, and an older guy had to step in to talk him down and also explain to him that starting a fight in that situation would have almost certainly wrecked his budding career.

We've all seen a convenience store video or two (or a hundred) of a young black male shooting another young black for the grave sin of bumping into him without apologizing, or something similar.

Immortalized by The Boondocks:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UajTvU3sjrY?si=4xYmR5zz_UC9WVF_