site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 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.

in the future when leaders read about the aggression of America and Israel against the underdog Iran.

Iran has declared war on the west without declaring war on the west since I’ve been alive.

They’ve killed maimed and disrupted as much as they could.

Legitimizing them is embarrassing.

This whole Trump 2.0 is an embarrassment (and I voted for him!).

I was against the war, but now that we’re in it, stopping without a new regime is wild, and bombing should restart as soon as a dollar of Iranian funds go to terrorism of the west.

The US will not not be a world super power in 200 years.

Iran has declared war on the west without declaring war on the west since I’ve been alive.

This. Remember 9/11, London, Madrid.

Oh, my mistake. Turns out that most of the terror attacks on western countries are actually Sunni attacks, not Shi'ite.

I do not like the Iranian regime, but if their 1985 bombings in Paris qualify as "continuous state of war", then we might as well claim that Saudi Arabia pursues a relentless war of extermination against the West given 9/11 etc.

They monetarily pay terrorist organizations.

I do concur that all of Islam is actually bad for the west.

They monetarily pay terrorist organizations.

So does the US, so does Israel. Can we stop with the pearl clutching, please?

Come on, you can't introduce non-sequitur's to OP's point and use them as disproof of his point. "Iran has been at war with the West." "What about all these other incidents that weren't Iran's fault?" Come on, how is that logically connected at all.

Has Iran funded a lot of terrorism in the west? I was under the impression they were one of the smaller players in that arena.