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 -
I do not love extant America, because extant America is three generations into suppressing me and mine, and replacing us with compliant foreigners, in all defiance of history and culture. Extant America threw open the doors to every criminal alien from Central America that could get here, and is firing White men to replace them with Indians on H1-B visas, or shipping jobs overseas to practice wage arbitrage. Extant America is protecting "Maryland man" from deportation and releasing violent criminals because if we punished them properly the true differences between races could not be denied. Extant America is exactly the polyglot boarding house TR warned against, and it was deliberately built this way, and people like Wanderer are telling me it's too late to change anything, and people like you are telling me it's Truly American, actually. To him I say, So what? To you I say, No.
I love the America of my father's birth, and but feel no great love for the America of my son's birth. I'd like the America of my great-grandson's birth to have reversed the direction, but I, too, think that's less likely than genocidal civil race war, which itself is less likely than just the same strangulation, the frog boiling, we've seen my entire life.
I love the America of my birth, of my father's birth, that my grandfathers fought for, that my great grandfather's immigrated to. I love the America that is Great because we have the best of everything and the best of everyone, the America where I grew up with a Pakistani pediatrician, where half my best friends growing up were Indian, where I learned from professors like Amar.
I love the America that develops so many great athletes that you had the Heritage Americans on the American WBC team, Italian Americans on the Italy team, and Mexican Americans on the Mexican team, and they were all competitive!
I love the America of Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, of Barack Obama and Dwight Eisenhower, the America of Joe Dimaggio and Frank Sinatra, of Woody Allen and Bob Dylan.
I'm glad we can be clear about terms. You can find it offensive to call an eminent constitutional scholar American, I will find it offensive when you don't.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link