site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 28, 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.

4
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

has the consequence of being on the side of 'good' been of benefit to the people? The obvious answer is no. And that's not the fault of Hitler, but the people who came after him.

In that case the side of “good” winning was followed by the post WW2 economic boom, aka the Golden Age of Capitalism, when growth rates were so high that in many countries it was called an economic miracle. Sure, the causes are more complicated than just the Allies winning, but if the Nazis had won, there’s no indication that they would suddenly have switched from their extractive economy based on slave labour and exploiting conquered countries for raw materials.

The average person is obviously worse off in a Russian-aligned economy, I don’t see how you can argue otherwise. Look at Hungary, which went from one of the more prosperous Eastern European economies to being worse off than Romania, thanks to Orban and his policies which gave control of industries to oligarchs and used government funds to enrich himself and his cronies.

That the EU isn't a bureaucratic hellscape that hates its citizens.

As someone who lives in a EU country, that’s just plain false. I can live, work and retire in 27 countries, I have some of the best consumer rights in the world, best food regulations, and we got Apple to put USB C in iPhones. Taxes are high, but in terms of bureaucracy, they’re way simpler for the average person than whatever is going on in the US. You see something offered for a certain price, that’s how much you’ll pay, tax included. You don’t get screwed by hidden fees, whether you’re booking a plane ticket or getting a hotel.

There’s flaws, but you don’t have to burn the whole thing down to fix them.

Are any of the big movements that now define modern society worth dying for?

People are willing to die for movements that appeal to their emotions, not for those that will improve their lives the most. Anarchist terrorists were a serious threat in the 19th century, not so much Georgists, even though the land value tax has a better track record at improving economic efficiency.

if the Nazis had won, there’s no indication that they would suddenly have switched from their extractive economy based on slave labour and exploiting conquered countries for raw materials.

I don't understand. It doesn't seem to me that german economy was any more dependent on slave labor than any other european country, arguably less since they didn't have any colonies. The countries they conquered during WW2 they had for a handful of year, all of which spent at war.

The average person is obviously worse off in a Russian-aligned economy, I don’t see how you can argue otherwise

I don't know, to be honest, that you can extrapolate the past into the future. The EU has made some serious mistakes in the past 15 years, it seems to me that we are set for irrecoverable decline. Not that Putin's rule would make things better, but also not much worse either.

As someone who lives in a EU country, that’s just plain false. I can live, work and retire in 27 countries

No, you can't. You can work in 27 countries and you can live there as long as you can prove to be self sufficient but not retire. Even access to healthcare, beyond emergency stuff, is going to be complicated.

You don’t get screwed by hidden fees, whether you’re booking a plane ticket or getting a hotel.

Well, actually, regardin hotels a lot of places now have a tourism tax that you get charged for at checkin time. That sales tax is always included is really cool but the EU is still a bureaucratic mess, I'll refer you to Draghi's various reports on the difficulties of starting cross-border european companies.

I don't understand. It doesn't seem to me that german economy was any more dependent on slave labor than any other european country, arguably less since they didn't have any colonies. The countries they conquered during WW2 they had for a handful of year, all of which spent at war.

It's difficult to defend Nazi Germany as having used slave labour pre-WW2 (as they didn't), other issues with the economy aside. That said, for post-war planning, one can look at Generalplan Ost...

If you could simply make children out of GDP going up you would have a point. But that is not the case. And as far as I can tell the 'good' see little reason to care, and would rather short circuit the system with mass immigration and mass female employment, since it's much easier and they can make more money that way in the short term. Every other effect, including the baby boom, was secondary.

The most crucial thing the third Reich promised and delivered on, for the short time it existed outside of wartime, was an increase in births. Low birthrates were already a looming threat back then, and the threat was met and dealt with. To that extent there is no indication that they would have stopped doing that. On top of that I would argue that the claims of the German economy relying on slave labour are quaint Libertarian fiction. Germany is, after all, the most industrially and technologically proficient nation on earth. To assume they would rely on labour camps in perpetuity is childish at best. Similarly, the term 'extraction based economy' is just silly. Every economy importing raw materials is extraction based. But if you happen upon resources during wartime that are necessary for your wartime economy, what do you do? 'Not extract' them? Again, to assume the Germans would have settled on a perpetual wartime economy is quaint Libertarian fiction.

Aside from that I don't see your point. Was Russia not on the good side in WW2? The entire war was practically a war between Russia and Germany! My argument applies equally to both the European West and the East. In fact one could argue the 'good' side winning is directly at fault for dooming the East to suffer under the Soviet Union.

As someone who lives in a EU country, that’s just plain false.

You, me and every migrant on earth can enjoy those very same benefits at your expense. Hence why the EU is burning down one way or another. I'd prefer to burn it down before the rot reaches the nursery. And personally I'm tired of hearing stories from my new coworkers of how they walked from Turkey to Austria, before taking a plane ride to my hometown.

As far as you want to personalize the excellence of the EU nations, I want to tell you that you suck. There is no coming back from what is going on today.

People are willing to die for movements that appeal to their emotions, not for those that will improve their lives the most. Anarchist terrorists were a serious threat in the 19th century, not so much Georgists, even though the land value tax has a better track record at improving economic efficiency.

I don't disagree. Which is why I don't understand the veneration of the 'good' side, given we see the disastrous consequences of their supremacy. Your nations, culture and people are living on borrowed time for reasons no one can articulate. Is it greed? Corruption? Power? All anyone can say when asked why this is the case is to backpedal towards Hitler and how he was evil and therefor, by defeating Hitler we are good no matter what comes after. That's a pretty cheap rubric to fall under, in my view.