site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 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.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

How is Singapore fascist? they have Free and fair election under a Westminster system? The others aren't really fascist either. The fascists in Spain were the Falange who were in a coalition with Franco but not the leading party. I don't think fascist just means "right wing authoritarian" The self identified fascists in the interwar period were all about state intervention over free markets and there was an element of futurism in both Italian and German fascism that we don't see in those governments.

If non of those countries are real fascists then MAGA is definitely not fascists. But if you use the expanded definition of fascists to be all those countries then sure MAGA has some beliefs that are inline with those countries.

The left wants to make the connection that MAGA has beliefs like the countries I listed and therefore they are Jew Killing Nazi fascists. But yes you can’t have it both ways and declare MAGA is fascists but then limit your meaning of fascists to just actual Jew killing nazis. If you use the expanded definition of fascists then all the countries I listed are sort of fascists but also successful governments that didn’t kill a lot of Jews.

I am ok calling myself a fascists if it means like Singapore or Pinochet.

Yeah pretty much I don't think MAGA are fascists.