site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   12626 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 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.

5
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The sitting mayor of New York City openly claims that the NYPD have only committed police brutality because they were trained to by the IDF.

I dislike Mamdani but I've never heard him claim that before so I double checked it

Not exactly. The statement is a misleading paraphrase of something Zohran Mamdani actually said.

In August 2023, before he was mayor, Mamdani said at a Democratic Socialists of America conference:

“When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”

I think it bad faith to assume it the way you do. There is an Israeli-NYPD partnership, this is verifiable fact. He did not say the boot of NYPD is only the IDF, as you claim, just that it was "laced" by them. Even in the literal reading of the analogy, laces are only a part of a shoe so the reading of "only" doesn't work there either.

Outside of Jew-hatred, American leftists are disproportionately likely to believe that a literal genocide of trans people is either imminent or already ongoing.

As another comment pointed out, this isn't a conspiracy so much as it is The Worst Argument In The World. Most leftists I've talked to and see online don't believe the death camps are starting up anytime soon, just that legal discrimination/banning of hormones/etc will happen. They're talking about things like federal government officials drawing up plans to ban trans people from the 2nd amendment.

I agree that it's wrong to call it a genocide, but it's not a conspiracy theory to misuse words! Same way I disagree with the unfair and human rights abusing treatment of Ughyurs being labeled genocide for there has not been a mass death of them, but someone considering their treatment as genocidal is not a conspiracy. I just think they're too loose with the term and should not call it that.

Obviously, there's the whole Russiagate thing.

That's somewhat a conspiracy theory, but Trump is also openly friendly with Putin and there's plenty of strong evidence that Russia tries to influence our elections. Any conspiracy theory there is just in how much Trump/Trump allies could have engaged in open collusion.

Many leftists believe that the assassination attempt against Trump was staged.

Good job, you found an unequivocal actual conspiracy theory.

Many popular conspiracy theories (the moon landings were faked, vaccines cause autism, JFK was killed by the government) are equally popular among Democrats as Republicans

I'll be more willing to believe that once a Democrat anti vaxxer runs the HHS.

Bro, Mamdani has certainly toned down his rhetoric since he became mayor, but how else do you interpret that line about the IDF lacing the NYPD's boots? He was, at the very least, gesturing towards Da Joos and implying Israeli training was responsible for police brutality, and he's too smart not to know what he was implying.

I personally know trans people who genuinely believe that federal agencies are gearing up to start going after trans people, either to put them in camps or forcibly detransition them or maybe just arrest them for having the wrong gender on their driver's licenses.

And we've discussed many times here how many unarmed black people the average leftist believes are gunned down by police every month.

You can quibble over what the precise definition of "conspiracy theory" is, which strikes me as being about as useful as arguing about the legal definition of "genocide" wrt Gaza. But irrationality is definitely not limited to the right.

Bro, Mamdani has certainly toned down his rhetoric since he became mayor, but how else do you interpret that line about the IDF lacing the NYPD's boots?

The same way I said, about the NYPD/Israeli partnership! I even checked the chatbots with the other guy who asked me to see if I'm out of line.

And what did I get?

What do you think Zohran meant by the IDF laced the boot on your neck?

I think the most charitable—and probably most accurate—reading is that Mamdani was using “laced by the IDF” as a metaphor for institutional influence

Unless the chatbots are also trolling or something, this seems to be a fair way to interpret the comment.

or forcibly detransition them or maybe just arrest them for having the wrong gender on their driver's licenses

The first one is obviously a conspiracy, these other ones are not.

https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/denton-county-rep-wants-to-institutionalize-transgender-people-23307423/

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2021-2022/billintroduced/House/htm/2022-HIB-6454.htm

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/28/nx-s1-5728969/kansas-revokes-drivers-licenses-of-hundreds-of-trans-people-prompted-by-new-law

And we've discussed many times here how many unarmed black people the average leftist believes are gunned down by police every month.

Being wrong about that number does not allege a shadowy cabal behind such shootings.

And here is your shtick — Zohran says something crazy conspiratorial and you try to argue around it.

What do you think Zohran meant by the IDF laced the boot on your neck? Don’t dance. Don’t pull a Darwin.

I opened up a new ChatGPT instance (without any history of my account) and literally asked it

"The sitting mayor of New York City openly claims that the NYPD have only committed police brutality because they were trained to by the IDF." Is this true?

And that's when I got back the response of no, it's not really accurate for the reasons I shared.

I also asked your question now.

What do you think Zohran meant by the IDF laced the boot on your neck?

I think the most charitable—and probably most accurate—reading is that Mamdani was using “laced by the IDF” as a metaphor for institutional influence, not literally saying Israeli soldiers were directing NYPD officers.

Those are the only two messages I sent, go ahead and check the responses yourself if you want. Use only those two lines and in a new instance.

Do you think ChatGPT was also "pulling a Darwin" for having the same perfectly logical conclusion I came up with? If not, then don't accuse me of bad faith.

I think that you are Darwin, and that you are pulling a Darwin by asking ChatGPT, because only Darwin ever asks ChatGPT and thinks the result is of any use.

You're so right, literally no one else could possibly view AI to be useful as a reference. That's why all the AI companies are poor and failing, their employees are getting laid off, and fortune 500 CEOs are banning all AI usage from their workers.

The Darwin conspiracy goes deep, even Elon Musk is him! Terrence Tao too?, one of the smartest mathematicians in the world. Just how many IRL alts does this guy have?

Typical—first you never explained what you think it meant (and never did in your OP).

Clearly Zohran is suggesting there is strong influence by IDF to encourage police brutality. You can quibble on the margins but the core of the claim is bs conspiratorial thinking.

And now you’ve trolled your way to numerous other posts instead of just being direct to start with.

I did explain a possibility of what it meant, referencing the verifiably true Israeli/NYPD partnership. It doesn't mean he's claiming that the "NYPD have only committed police brutality because they were trained to by the IDF."

And now you’ve trolled your way to numerous other posts instead of just being direct to start with.

Do you think that the AIs are also just trolling when they interpret his comments the same way?

It’s called sanewashing. Both sides obviously do it.

I do think the IDF comment is a bad area to do it and is basically antisemitic. Why do I say this? I have a lot of respect for the NYPD and honestly think they do a really good job and if shouldn’t get criticism. NYC does actually have low crime rates. Though sometimes I think this may just be filtering and superior demographics of the populace similar to how Florida’s superiority with Hispanic education is likely superior demographics and heavy selection of rich white Latinos.

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