site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 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
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

It's official. He's gone. The only stick they needed was unified unrelenting social pressure.

I find it rather distasteful. The Democratic party apparatus at all levels has displayed sheer contempt for both the results of the primary election and the entire concept of personal loyalty. They gave him nothing for all of his hard work and sucess.

I think there's a strong argument that Platner is the one who broke the concept of loyalty here, not the party. If this allegation was waiting in the wings, and Platner knew it was, his entire candidacy was based on false pretenses. He explicitly told his supporters that nothing more would be revealed after the initial round of scandals. That was clearly a lie.

I’m not a Maine voter, but I was a supporter of his until this point, and I generally back the populist left. I’m more than happy to ditch him now. He tanked his own movement by hiding a massive liability, and looking at the polling, a standard Democratic suit filler that isn't 70+ has a perfectly decent shot against Collins without all of this baggage.

I think it's quite likely he either didn't remember (the consent accident happened while he was totally wasted) or didn't think it was important info for voters (who doesn't send dick picks on the sly?) to know, so not quite a lie.

The core issue is that people can forgive a youthful mistake; I can definitely imagine perfectly fine people I know getting a Nazi tattoo when they were 20 or whatever. It makes the person seem more relatable, if anything. But a long pattern of bad judgments makes people start seeing you as the asshole they know in real life, not the dopey friend.

results of the primary election

Well, at least they had one this time.