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 -
No US leader (sane or otherwise) has attempted to take Greenland from Denmark by military force. Trump actually threatened nothing but tariffs. Not ruling out something is not the same as threatening it, and not ruling things out when asked is something that is both characteristic of Trump AND characteristic of the US (which, e.g., has never ruled out first use of nuclear weapons).
Certainly the US could take Canada, militarily. It's not going to happen under a sane leader. An insane leader could take Canada, militarily, even in the presence of a nuclear deterrent.
Now, yes. Canada now is just like Ukraine in 2014.
This could change fast. Ukraine in 2014 was hopeless wreck, Ukraine in 2022 was something else.
Perhaps, but not in the way/with the implications you're expecting.
The US invading Canada would have Battle of Baghdad (2021) levels of resistance, and the vast majority of Canadian heavy industry sits within conventional artillery range without the US even having to cross the border. (The reverse is not true.) Now, since that industry is the only reason the US would really want to invade, they probably wouldn't start laying the factories to waste, but the point remains that Canada simply can't depend on domestic war materiel production.
If the US wanted to take Canada tomorrow, they would accomplish that task with little effort and have the English-speaking part integrated within a year (since it basically already is). Quebec might give them some trouble, though, since there's a language barrier there, and even the part without a language barrier will be the most radicalized; it'd probably take long enough for the French to reinforce them militarily. They have an unsinkable aircraft carrier ~20km off the Quebec coast already; it's French (and thus EU) territory.
At that point I expect Canada = Quebec to petition for admittance into the EU as a member state. Most of the border problems for English Canada are obviated by losing the hard border with the US.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link