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 -
It seems too me that the Israelis are enjoying the schadenfreude of their enemies getting to deal with rowdy Muslims rather than coordinating anything. Morocco routinely does this when they get annoyed with Spain, it's not a new thing so no need to add the Israelis to it because Morocco has been doing this for ages because they claim Ceuta and have a heated rivalry with Algeria. I feel like your heuristics are a broken here in that you barely mention Algeria, even with the edit and have divided the factions here way to uniformly.
Morocco and Algeria are archrivals Morocco is a conservative monarchy and Algeria is a revolutionary socialist state. What's more Algeria backs and hosts the Polisario Liberation front. Separatists who want Western Sahara to be there own independent country. Spain gets most of their natural gas from Algeria and also has bad relations with Morocco because they claim the two Spanish cities on Morocco's coast Ceuta and Melilla. This web of territorial claims alliances and rivalries explain what is going on much more then "the Jews" the Israelis are certainly happy about this but this is a local conflict that doesn't require their coordination.
This is a very bad heuristic. Israel doesn't care about Islam. They care about Palestinians Israel's enemies are not Islam but Hamas and various Palestinian groups. This is why they can have good relations with Morocco they don't care about >fighting islam as some eternal enemy. The way you do the Jews, which is good for them because this kind of monomania leads to silly things like you referencing Jews betraying Toledo more than a 1000 years ago as if it has some relevance while mostly ignoring the deep seated rivalries actually driving this.
Normally what people do in situations like this is attack the current government, and boost the opposition that would be more favorable to them. Engaging in this type schadenfreude is somewhere between stupid and "when people tell you who they are, believe them".
More options
Context Copy link
I think saying Israel doesn't care about Islam whatsoever is a bit of a misnomer. They've got obvious reasons to not want hardcore Islamism to get much of a foothold in the region (since Jew purging is always gonna be a top 5 cause for hardcores), but they're also capable of negotiating sensibly with Islamic states that are willing to compromise on Koranic conduct for commercial reasons.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link