site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 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.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

If you broke up the problem into the phases needed to get to civil war, you'd find more offramps than onramps,

Yes, but what if all of the parties involved are steadfastly determined to refuse every single offramp that is given to them?

In Minnesota, I think monkeys will fly out of my butt before the federal government ever does anything to create the appearance that a state can veto federal laws by just rioting hard enough. The feds pulling ICE out of Minnesota would be the end of the USA. Won't happen. The millisecond that ICE pulls out of Minnesota, every single state in the union will declare the nullification of whatever federal laws they don't like. Gun laws in the red states, immigration laws in the blue states. Federal supremacy will be over.

But on the other hand, the "we are living in the fifth reich" narrative has taken off and is well beyond the control of anyone at this point.

I think the best case is that we end up with The Troubles Part 2: Electric Boogaloo - persistent asymmetric conflict whose intensity doesn't quite ascend to Civil War status, but which certainly doesn't quality as "peace." This lasts a minimum of three years while Trump is still president, and either ends with the election of a blue president (who?) or shifts into second gear with the election of JD Vance. The understanding that another blue president would definitely throw the borders wide-fucking-open the instant they swear the oath of office would likely be the major issue of the 2028 campaign.

The millisecond that ICE pulls out of Minnesota, every single state in the union will declare the nullification of whatever federal laws they don't like. Gun laws in the red states, immigration laws in the blue states. Federal supremacy will be over.

No. Troops will roll into the red states, not the blue. and everyone who missed it the first time will understand it was never about Federal supremacy, but Blue supremacy.

Not while Trump is still president. I'm not sure what Trump's ATF would do about states using Minnesota's example to justify nullifying federal gun laws, but I doubt it would mean troops rolling into red states.

Well, yeah, if ICE pulls out of Minnesota, Trump isn't running things any more (whether or not he has the title)