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 -
What do you think of male-female dating dynamics relative to the culture war? I have a lot of thoughts on this but ultimately think the people worth pursuing are not crossing people off their list because they don’t believe in X or Y.
But it might be beyond your control. As an American, I remember swiping on tinder in London and seeing ‘Do not swipe if you are Republican’ but they replaced the word with something called the Tories. Clearly some people will only date people that share the same ideology. Which is fair if you want someone to nod along to whatever you say, I guess.
It gets tricky when you outright pretend to believe things you don’t. It’s not courageous or respectable. Not apologizing for what you believe is paramount to gaining the respect of your partner. Obviously, when I say this, I’m really talking about relatively conservative men dating liberal women. And honestly, except for far left people like Hasan piker that glorify violent revolution in such a way that they do a 360 and put off conservative ethos, I do think men women find attractive aren’t the male feminist, Bernie bro type. It’s almost like a yin and yang thing where you want some tension with your ideals.
Unlike religion, I really don’t see a need to agree with my SO on much of anything (odd to me that JD Vance and Usha married despite this). It’s sad to think that, on the spectrum of ‘not scaring the hoes’ political ideology, you could have a good thing with someone, say the wrong thing, and lose a relationship because of it.
Only thinking this because I’m coming to terms that I don’t necc need to date a based woman who appreciates old Sam Hyde stuff and edgy right wing leaning online happenings. I’d rather not select for political belief, find someone that will lightly argue with me, and has no interest in that stuff. Likewise, I’ll voice my opinion to her but not make fun of her for being on bluesky or whatever
No woman is going to turn up her nose at a man for having different political opinions from her, provided he ticks enough of her other boxes. If a woman says "I matched with this guy on Tinder, but when I found out he was MAGA I ghosted him" – I mean, yes, that's the sequence in which those events transpired. But you didn't ghost him because he was MAGA: you ghosted him because you didn't find him attractive enough (not just physically, but also in terms of charm, sense of humour, financial viability etc.). Claiming that she rejected him for his political opinions is just social desirability bias: she would have been more than willing to overlook the exact same opinions if expressed by a more attractive man.
It may sound like I'm calling women shallow, but I'm really not. Men generally don't pretend to put a big premium on political compatibility with their romantic partner: the social desirability bias in men's case comes from attempting to downplay how important youth and physical attractiveness are to them. Plenty of men will claim not to care about looks and to just want to find a nice, normal, down-to-earth girl they can hang out with, but in practice will put up with a great deal of crazy behaviour from their romantic partner, provided she's young and hot enough.
The key phrase is “put up with”, there’s still a limit on what people will tolerate. Many men might tolerate occasional emotional outbursts from an attractive enough woman, but not threatening him with a knife or destroying all his possessions. Likewise, a liberal woman might stick with a hot guy with a few conservative opinions on immigration and welfare, but not a full-on white nationalist who believes women are second class citizens and that abortion should be illegal.
For many leftists and liberals MAGA is sufficiently repellent that yes, it can justifiably be the sole reason to reject someone. American politics have become enormously polarised and MAGA isn’t the same as milquetoast conservative viewpoints.
Yes it is. MAGA is mainstream conservatism today.
MAGA is closer to "90's Democrat" than modern Dems are.
What they really hate is their parents.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link