site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   13687 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Well yeah, people in Houston and Charlotte don't want much walkable neighborhoods. If they did, they wouldn't constantly vote against dense construction and bike lanes and the like.

My initial comment was that diversity and immigration are bad. Yes people in America vote against dense construction. People do NOT like living in diverse dense neighborhoods. They don’t like living next to black people.

Yet homogenous societies live in dense neighborhoods. Buenos Aires where they literally genocide blacks and Indians is dense and walkable. European cities are dense and walkable. Chinese cities are dense and walkable. Tokyo is dense and walkable.

So yes you prove my point. People do not like living in diverse societies. When people are in homogenous societies they suddenly choose to live close to each other.

Singapore is by no means homogeneous. There were race riots in the 1960s. Malays are economically less successful than the Chinese, and probably more prone to crime. Housing has racial quotas to ensure every building is in line with the national makeup. None of this stops them from living densely.

Don’t they have a semi-democracy and at times closer to dictatorship? They also execute people a lot?

So yes I think Americans would live in cities more if we executed every black person who stole or dealt drugs.

Because they execute drug dealers, cane robbers, and even fine you for eating in public transport. I rarely hear these things proposed by YIMBY immigration enjoyers.

Here I am. I believe modern American suburban living is terrible for the health of both people and the planet, but I understand that it's largely a reaction to unbearable crime rates and disorder in densely-populated areas, and that addressing them is the only way to get American families with children (as opposed to young adults who can put up with more) back in cities.

(Note: I'm not American.)

It's not just crime and disorder, it's mismanagement in general. Many large cities have very high taxes and struggle to deliver basic civic services beyond safety, like transit, parks, civic maintenance, or public improvements. Every year, things get shittier and worse. Tore out the flowers. Closed up the toilets. Potholes unpatched. Children can't read. Removed the benches. Tore down the statues. Closed the library branch. Closed the public pool. Stopped maintaining the beach. Stopped mowing the grass. No more leaf collection. Let brush overgrow everything. Cut the municipal office hours. Added more sales tax. Added more property tax. Added more income tax. Increased salary and benefits. It's maddening, it never ends.

ETA: Oh yeah! And no more fireworks on the 4th of July!

I would say most of that falls under "disorder". Flowers may be removed due to vandalism, toilets may be closed and benches removed due to the homeless/drug addicts, etc. Most of this would be solved if you just locked 'em up: criminals in prison (harsher sentences), crazies in mental hospitals, drug addicts in rehab (and prison for repeat offenders). The rest is just a lack of funding, which is generally attributed to wealthier people moving to the suburbs and decreasing the city's revenue.

Regarding public transport specifically, most suburbs have terrible or nonexistent public transport, so that's certainly not a reason people move there. Denser cities generally have some kind of public transport, even if it's filled with people smoking every substance imaginable.

Buenos Aires where they literally genocide blacks and Indians is dense and walkable. European cities are dense and walkable. Chinese cities are dense and walkable. Tokyo is dense and walkable.

A lot of these are either from historic choices, lack of land, and/or poverty. Europe is consumed with NIMBYism too, they're worse than the US now in many parts! Hong Kong has long been a NIMBY hub.

But it would be a mistake to infer that the territory’s housing shortages are because there is no more space in between the mountains. Like in nearly every country, Hong Kong’s problems ultimately derive from uncertain property rights regimes that do not let those who would benefit from development trade with those who have the power for it to be blocked.

Am I supposed to believe this is from racial tensions?.

Hong Kong has like 100 km^2 of land according to your own article that isn’t turned into condo towers. Yes cities still like to have some parks. Plus the article explains there are property right issues.

“Europe now has NIMBY”

  • Europe just let in a lot of third world brown people.

I will agree urbanism has multi-factor analysis. People don’t want to live in Coruscant style cities. But diversity seems to be a very good predictor of a countries urbanism.

Plus the article explains there are property right issues.

Yes, that is literally the exact mechanism in which NIMBYism functions in basically every country.

“Europe now has NIMBY”

Europe just let in a lot of third world brown people.

NIMBYist personality isn't new in Europe, great piece out recently on how that got overcame for a while and they were actually able to do stuff. https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-abolishing-the-stakeholder-state-caused-the-industrial-revolution/

The YIMBY vs NIMBY fight has been an ancient battle.

Pre-diversity or in the US The Great Migration when was urbanism an issue? The Southside of Chicago was thriving before blacks moved in. And now it’s a ghetto.

You can literally buy a 4k sq ft mansion there a few blocks from University of Chicago but it’s dirt cheap because blacks live there.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats