site banner

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
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

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.

Not to get in the way of a good public lynching, but I occasionally ask ChatGPT to vet my argument here, or help me refine it by looking up example citations (Which I do check for correctness!)

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.