site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 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 would have to disagree with this. The anti-gun types could get a lot of concessions and/or enhancement of their credibility if they agreed to national shall-issue concealed carry. The data is pretty overwhelming that automatically issuing concealed carry permits to anyone who passes a background check does not result in a significant increase in crime.

What concessions do you realistically think the pro-gun people would be willing to make?

What concessions do you realistically think the pro-gun people would be willing to make?

In exchange for national shall-issue concealed carry? At a guess:

  1. No private sales of firearms -- all sales must go through a registered dealer who does the necessary background checks;

  2. Laws that handguns must be kept secured while not in use if there are minors living in the same residence;

  3. Laws limiting purchases of handguns to one per month.

Obviously I don't speak for all pro-gun types, but I'm pretty confident that the anti-gun types could get at least 1 out of those 3, perhaps even all 3 if they agreed to national shall-issue concealed carry.

By the way, I asked you a question in the last thread and I am still waiting for an answer. Do you have any case authority for your claim that 18 USC 1014 applies only in the context of credit applications? Do you concede that in the past, people have been prosecuted under that provision for opening up fictitious bank accounts?

Yeah, I'll get to the question later. I've been working quite a bit and didn't have time to give a proper answer. Hopefully I'll get to it later today.