site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 31, 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.

As is surely true of people who imagine Canada to be a Chinese colony. Serious, jaded people, not deceived by outward appearances. Or rather, people who prefer to say that this is how they see Canada, because in actuality they feel like part of a great historical movement, a locust-like swarm of Manifest Destiny, which must not, will not be poisoned by pesky little facts. As we've established here before, American philosophy is pragmatism, and pragmatism has no notion of sincere belief or objective truth, only of what "works" and what "doesn't work". Building a consensus towards justifying further abuse and eventual annexation of the Northern neighbor presumably works, so these people will seriously "believe" whatever seems advantageous for this collective agenda.
At least that's how I see the normie thought process.

To elaborate on the object matter, though.

Mongolia has been a democracy since 1990. It runs an official "third neighbor" policy to avoid being absorbed into either Russia's or China's orbit. It hosts annual Khaan Quest exercises with the US, sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and on the personal level Mongolians are deeply suspicious of China if not outright hostile. It's even on Trump's newfangled Board of Peace, and may join Pax Silica. It's about as un-fucking-Chinese-aligned as a country in that position can afford to be (to wit: no recognition of Taiwan, no hosting of genuine strategic threats, no politicized investigations into COVID/Xinjiang/etc). Nobody credits this because Mongolia is weak af and entirely dependent on trade with the PRC. As for why this is the reality: for all the Orientalism about "face" the CCP members, starting with Xi, are not abysmally insecure narcissists who violently lash out if a neighbor develops some Opinions. They know they're not loved. They also know Mongolia isn't going anywhere, so there are no sanctions and hissy fits.

Canada, likewise, isn't going anywhere. It's weak af, and entirely militarily and economically dependent on the US. Unlike Mongolia to China, it's an old and trusted military ally to the US. WWI, WWII, Korea, Kandahar, the Gulf, Kosovo, Libya. Banter is banter, but blood is thicker than banter, except in the chutzpah-powered world of NY real estate which now supplies your philosopher-kings, I guess. This is the situation I'd love to have with Ukraine, but you guys seem to be obsessed with getting the real Russian scenario instead. May you fail and only get a fair deal, with Canada genuinely hedging towards China but not to the point of becoming openly hostile, and the compute regulation scenario becoming less lopsided in your favor. That's better than what you deserve.