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 -
Yeah, and then Turkey gets drawn into the fray because it will be a cold day in hell before they accept an independent Kurdistan on their doorstep. It would be darkly hilarious if Turkey ended up propping up the Iranian regime against the Kurds (“the devil you know” and all that). But more likely, given that Turkey is a NATO member and US client, it would just devolve into a 3-way quagmire. At least us Americans could wash our hands of it and leave Turkey to deal with the dirty work.
Zooming out, though, it really is a minor diplomatic miracle for the US/Israel that the IRI has alienated so many of its neighbors for so long that we were able to swoop in and win over any potential allies of theirs within just the past few years. The recent flailing around and randomly shooting up the whole neighborhood is just the tip of the iceberg; for decades prior to the Abraham Accords, the Iranians passed up basically every opportunity to set aside ethnic/sectarian differences and unite with their Sunni Arab neighbors, indeed the entirety of the global Ummah, against the hated Little Satan whose existence it is allegedly their foremost goal to eradicate. But they weren’t content to play second fiddle in the Islamic orchestra, nor would their purity-spiral mindset permit them to break bread with anyone less than maximally anti-Israel, so now all their Arab neighbors are functionally allied with Israel instead. How the turns have tabled.
More options
Context Copy link