site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   20628 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

A woman in Minneapolis has been killed in an altercation with ICE. I don’t really trust any of the narratives being spun up. Here are two three angles:

Angle 1

Angle 2 [Twitter] [youtube]

Angle 3 (Emerged as I was writing this)

This is actually a fairly discussed type of shooting. Law enforcement confronts a person in a vehicle, the LEO positions himself in front of the vehicle, the person in the vehicle drives forward, and the cop shoots the person. Generally, courts have found that this is a legitimate shoot. The idea being that a car can be as deadly a weapon as anything.

Those who are less inclined to give deference to law enforcement argue that fleeing the police shouldn’t be a death sentence, and that usually in these situations the LEO has put himself in front of the vehicle.

I have a long history of discussing shooters in self-defense situations [1] [2] [3] and also one of being anti-LEO. However, I’m softer on the anti-LEO front in the sense that within the paradigm in which we exist, most people think the state should enforce laws, and that the state enforcing laws = violence.

The slippery slope for me: “Fleeing police shouldn’t be a death sentence”

“Resisting arrest shouldn’t be a death sentence”

“If you just resist hard enough, you should be able to get away with it”

People really try to divorce the violence from state action, but the state doesn’t exist without it.

You guys have all gotten so into the weeds about the mechanics of the individual shooting that you’re missing the big Fort Sumpter style moves that are going on right now:

•There’s something like 3000 federal law enforcement offers deployed in Minneapolis right now

•Mainstream media, Reddit, and various politicians have incited multiple assassination attempts on these officers

•Relatively photogenic citizen non-felon in gunned down in ambiguous situation, there is now a bloody shirt to waive

•Mayor and Governor are now calling for the removal of all federal agents from Minneapolis

•Governor Walz is now threatening to use the Minnesota National Guard to remove federal agents from the city, setting the stage for conflicting guard federalizations and call up orders

•You will have an armed unit of the state/federal military apparatus actually having to pick a side in a legally ambiguous situation

•You will have armed state/municipal police facing off against armed federal agents with the national guard caught somewhere in the middle

This is not good. No matter who’s fault it is, this is not good.

Photogenic woman whose last name is Good. Hard to imagine a name more suited for emotionally-charged polemics.

Kind of shocking, how does a young mother decide to try to use her car to block ICE? Do these people have no sense these are dangerous activities?

It’s kind of interesting to me that the last story I remember hearing about an ICE shooting was also a woman (who survived). Why are women doing this? Do they have some sense of invincibility?

Why are women doing this? Do they have some sense of invincibility?

It's that they don't understand how dangerous the game they're playing is. People see a lot of youtube videos and tik toks and stuff and they feel empowered to act out their revolutionary fantasies.

I suspect she never got The Talk. I got it in Driver's Ed class: if you're ever stopped by police, keep your hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel, and be polite: "Good [time of day] officer, what seems to be the problem?". You can disagree politely, but you're not going to win any arguments at that point: if you do well, a lawyer can get things tossed out later, though.

Of course, I'm not sure women normally get that one.

I've never even heard of this as being a special thing that is taught.

So you know how it's popular on Instagram to post about how women are taught to "never let them take you to another location, piss yourself, etc." to avoid sexual assault, and men don't have an equivalent of that? This is that equivalent.

I was taught- stay in your vehicle, be polite, let them know if you have a gun but otherwise say nothing except direct answers to questions with no further details. Do not let them search your vehicle without a warrant.

I'm a white 40yo male who grew up in a middle class CA suburb. It was explicitly taught to me in school that if a police officer pulls you over and you put your hands out of view, you will be shot (because you could be reaching for a gun).

Same, couple of years younger. Is how to deal with a police stop not a standard part of driver's ed elsewhere? I was literally tested on this in order to get my license.

Should it have to be?

I dont think I ever had that officially instructed to me in some class. Just something you pick up on from family and relatives in addition to being intuitively obvious.

The part about being polite, no I guess not. But the thing about the hand positions sounds strange to me. I guess it's because guns are so common in the United States. Here in Canada, it's not really something anyone ever worries about because they're largely illegal.

I'm guessing you grew up in a place or social/economic milieu where people didn't have many violent interactions with cops. It's very common for e.g. responsible black parents to teach their kids that lesson.

I guess not. According to this there have been six police officers deliberately killed on duty in my province of one million people. Two in my lifetime and about one every few decades. The latest one was relatively recent in 2020 because we had a mass shooting, which is very unusual.

I never went to no drivers' ed class, but I'm not being "polite" to a police officer who is openly trying to charge me with something. The police are owed nothing from the citizens who pay their salaries. And ICE are not even police.

  • -19

Are you trying to win a Darwin Award?

I agree with him on being polite to people who are trying to punish me, and it's gotten me in trouble. But I never tried to run them over and I'd fully expect them to shoot me if I did.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats