site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 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.

2
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Macklemore for taking a mild pro-Palestine stance

Seems to me to be an understatement. And one that the whole thesis of the post relies on. He's an extremist, even if not so on the modern online left.

Lets just posit a world where people are informed and on truth serum. We pose the question, as something like, "What percentage of Israeli strikes in Gaza actually targeted a combatant, terrorist, weapons cache, military supply depot, intelligence operation, or related facility?" Basically everyone would answer 99%-100%.

But then there is the more consequential question. "What if Israel just fired missiles indiscriminately into Gaza at random targets, what is the chance they would hit a combatant, terrorist, weapons cache, military supply depot, intelligence operation, or related facility?" The informed, truthful, people, would say something like 80-99%.

If you want to side with the weaker side in a military conflict because that is your philosophy, then just say that. But it is, to me, disgusting and evil when people reward the use of human shields and false flags and piracy and the like with sympathy. The crybully tactics of modern Islam need to be punished like they would have been by the Brits and French of the 19th century. And, quite frankly, given the current set of belligerents, the Brits and French should have been mounting up to do it themselves years ago under a sane system.

But Israel/Palestine is mostly just a proxy for

But it is, to me, disgusting and evil when people reward the use of killing children with sympathy

which is what modern feminists do, so you can generalize your statement to

The crybully tactics of modern feminism need to be punished like they would have been by the men of the 19th century.

and we'll note that it's not the 19th century any more. In fact, it's been over 100 years since it was the 19th century.


This is a problem with women, and women will have to hand over the wheel back to men on this one.

You, as a man, cannot force this to happen; you have no more military or organizational power in this matter than modern Britain or France do under US hegemony.