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.

You don't need to look at Groypers for this.

I'm going to blatantly shill for a youtube channel I'm rather fond of; Effective Purpose, whom if I had to describe to other people, I'd say he was a Married, Christian Hoe Math.

I'm not joking.

The thing I find most interesting about him is that, despite his professed Christianity(and he certainly comes across as spiritual, though I suppose that could be my bias in action), he does not spare the rod nor spoil the child when it comes to criticism of things he finds need to be criticized; From the Church itself, to Church leadership, to women, and even Christian Women as a whole, noting that the entire 'TradCath' path toward acquiring a woman is just another pig and poke due to various reasons(which he then goes into).

He's done a video about what you talk about; How other things in the past(and in the current day), men will flock to the church in times of trouble and promptly leave for various reasons(see above).

So. Perhaps I'm a bit of a pessimist, but I don't see any influx of Groypers to have any long-term influence. If anything, the real danger will be excactly that; they move into the church, find the above, and then promptly move onto something that will satisfy thier need without any sense of restraint or stricture.

pig and poke

Pig in the poke (poke == sack)

Wiki:

"Starting in the 19th century, this idiom [buying a pig in a poke] was explained as a confidence trick where a farmer would substitute a cat for a suckling pig when bringing it to market. When the buyer discovered the deception, he was said to "let the cat out of the bag", that is, to learn of something unfortunate prematurely,[3] hence the expression "letting the cat out of the bag",[4] meaning to reveal that which is secret.[5] The French idiom acheter (un) chat en poche and the Dutch een kat in de zak kopen and also the German die Katze im Sack kaufen (all: to buy a cat in a bag) refer to an actual scam of this nature, as do many other European equivalents, while the English expression refers to the appearance of the trick.[5] The English idiom "sold a pup" refers to a similar con.[6] Other variations include "buy a fish in water" (Arabic), "buy a cow on another mountain" (Chinese), "buy in a closed box" (Italian) and "buy a cat instead of a hare" (Iberian languages).

I don't disagree that societies expectations of women are low, or that society is explicitly and institutionally biased towards women. What does he advocate for beyond preaching from the pulpit that women should lower their standards?

You could look at his videos he's done on this topic, if you care to.

I don't think he's advocating any single golden ticket solution(wise, as I belive there is none), but I think he does a valuable service of pointing out where male leadership is failing at leading men.