site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 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.

Although on the face this may seems like a stretch

You should have trusted your gut on this one.

The gloating is obviously of the form "you criticise how we deal with the Palestinians, but it's easy to criticise us when you don't have to deal with tens of thousands of hostile MENA men right on your doorstep. Now you understand what it's like to be on the receiving end." No conspiracy necessary.

Spain is not shooting these people or bombing their homes and has been working to naturalize millions of immigrants. Doing exactly what they say Israel should do.

has been working to naturalize millions of immigrants.

And is the average Spaniard happy about this, in your opinion?

A crisis that is likely going to end Spain's left-wing government comes out of thin air, clearly coordinated, and also suggested and supported by American policy think tanks? I meant it was a stretch before reviewing all the evidence that this is actually a geopolitical move not a random migration event.

comes out of thin air

Are you forgetting the part where the Spanish government granted a mass amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants a few weeks ago?

Seems like that's the kind of thing that might incentivise the young men of Morocco to move to Spain and wait for the next amnesty.

Did Israel and/or America make Spain's Supreme Court annul huge sections of their Immigration Regulations a few weeks ago? Did America tell Spain to spend less on its military so it couldn't defend its borders? Did Israel Spain's left-wing government?

I actually agree with you that Israel and the US is likely involved in this one, but portraying this as "out of nowhere", and the Spanish left as hapless victims of foreign schemes does not help the impression that you're singularly obsessed with Israel / the Jews, to the detriment of literally everything else.

By "out of nowhere" I mean that this wasn't a random migration event. I am well-aware that Spain has been heavily involved in making an enemy of Israel and making the US unhappy- they aren't hapless victims they are paying the price for their politics. There's good reason for US/Israel to not like Spain.

No, what they mean is that Spain's messaging and policy alone gave migrants reason to think they could try their chances, much like similar messaging from the Biden administration was followed by a "surge to the border" (which at the time had a good relationship with Israel, in case we want to blame that on them too)

And what I mean is that if it was not for the left's domestic policy, none of this would be happening to begin with, or at worst it would have been trivially repelled. Russia and Belarus tried the same thing with Poland and the Baltics, and didn't get far.

A crisis that is likely going to end Spain's left-wing government comes out of thin air, clearly coordinated,

How thin air? That left-wing government just recently granted citizenship to half a million Africans, with heavy implications that they'd do it again and in greater numbers. Invasion levels of young men charging into Spain was the most predictable outcome in the world.

This article claims that 1.2 million illegal immigrants have applied, with 600k applications having been processed so far. Half a million is the lower bound.

Is it a coordinated geopolitical move? Possibly.

Is it a coordinated geopolitical move in which the Israelis are involved? I don't think you've even come close to arguing that claim.