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 obvious implication was that India was India, just subject to the British Empire. I think that there can be an exception made for the case of removing the colonial holdings of former empires - it is extremely rare for a rule to not have valid exceptions. I think the Israel/Palestine situation falls into that category.
This is inextricable from the current circumstances. During the holocaust, many jews and gypsies wanted to initiate violence upon the Germans, and there were few who are willing to stop them. This is why I also mentioned muscular denazification efforts - if you want to have peaceful co-existence, the people who murdered children and then waited for the ambulance to arrive so they could murder the medical workers need to face justice. If I stole your home and locked you in the basement, would you be willing to accept a peaceful resolution where you remain locked in the basement and I retain all of your stuff without any compensation?
Retaliatory violence is to be expected when peaceful avenues for redress of grievances are rendered impotent - Israel is by the admission of several high-ranking Israelis an imposition upon Palestinian territory. When you unwind the chain of violence backwards, you end up with the Irgun, Haganah, Stern Gang and Lehi using violent terrorism to achieve statehood. Defending their actions and the state of Israel means defending this violence and there's no real way out of it.
As I said, I'm not particularly interested in litigating this conflict here (these posts are getting long enough already). If you want to start up another thread about the Russia/Ukraine conflict, feel free to do so and even tag me in it.
Usually, countries with reasonable immigration policies take matters like these into account. Are you proposing that the hypothetical Jewish state in America would be unwilling to take these people in?
Yes, which is why I have made the proposals I have - either a single-state solution with intense denazification efforts, or a Jewish state located in America (where presumably the nazis would be able to stay in accordance with American tradition, like operation Paperclip).
Honestly, based on what I'm seeing come out of Israel it is entirely understandable why they've been treated this way. If this is what the Jews do when they have statehood, the Romans were right to take it away from them.
Nazi Germany was. How many members of Hitler's government continued to stay in power in Germany after the war ended?
As I said, America. The American government clearly loves Israel, to the point that they're willing to give Israel another 6.5 billion while cutting a similar amount in aid to needy families. I'm sure there are some sections of inhospitable and unpopulated desert owned by the US government that they'd be willing to hand over - they've given far more than that land was worth in financial assistance already.
More options
Context Copy link