site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 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.

5
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I think he's snarking that SCOTUS is, in fact, our highest legislative body.

Correct. And of course Senators were once appointed and not elected. Above someone notes argues how the ACLU argued contextually on the Constitution and the Right is now making “Living” arguments. Until recently the Court did act as a leftist Senate and did the things the left wanted while the right would argue the words.

As power shifts the side with power wants to define the meaning of words. When the court flipped one probably should have expected the right to be “living” theorists and the left to be “textualist”.

I don’t have interests in understanding the arguments in Obgerefell but it seems ridiculous to me that a document can mean one thing for 200 years and something else later. Debating the words just seems like a fun game some nerds play. This case comes down to the word “jurisdiction” and its meaning. I am probably 70-30 it means an expansive with birthright citizenship but when the amendments were passed many of the legislatures would have read the words narrowly. This isn’t physics where there was anl correct answer. It’s the usage of political power.

The meaning of the words to me seems like only something the right has cared about for most of my life. I would prefer to give up the charade and just do what you want to do.