site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 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.

Can you make drones in the dark?

No, but you can store them.

Do starving populations riot for regime change?

Who cares? Are they going to stop you from shooting at ships from your secret underground bases?

Do starving soldiers still fight?

Who says they're starving?

“Can store them” - eventually run out.

  • if you don’t control your own country and hinterland then the underground missile launch points you propose eventually run out of supplies

  • “who says their starving” That is why you take out civilian infrastructure. Cut electricity, power, key bridges and suddenly your farms don’t have irrigation and the food disappears.

So all you did was ignore the entire point I made of taking out civilian infrastructure. You just ignored it. You didn’t even counter that it would fail for x,y,z reason. Which it may.

How long would America last if a country had air superiority and bombed every power plant and oil refinery?

“Can store them” - eventually run out.

But certainly after much more than 36 hours.

“who says their starving” That is why you take out civilian infrastructure. Cut electricity, power, key bridges and suddenly your farms don’t have irrigation and the food disappears.

You can also easily store years worth of food.

So all you did was ignore the entire point I made of taking out civilian infrastructure. You just ignored it. You didn’t even counter that it would fail for x,y,z reason.

Your point is moot. Taking out the civilian infrastructure will not help you end the war.

How long would America last if a country had air superiority and bombed every power plant and oil refinery?

Depends on the war objectives. If the goal was to get America to retreat from some distant part of the world, that would work. If the goal was to conquer and occupy America, it would have been a nightmare for anyone that tried.

The current American goal of opening the Strait of Hormuz is closer to the latter scenario than the former.