site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 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.

One, I was not as aware of the details of phalloplasty; two, I was responding to the claim that, antiquote: "You may have noticed that female people have no flesh in between their legs which can be used to fashion a ... penis." The esteamed commenter would have been more accurate had he said "...do not have enough flesh in between their legs with which to...".

This is some of the most obnoxious hair-splitting I've ever encountered in my entire life.

"Why don't you buy a house?" Alice asked.
"Well, I don't have any money," Bob replied.
"Ah ah ah!" Alice retorted. "I saw your bank balance, and you have $200. So it's strictly untrue to say you don't have any money. You should have said you don't have enough money to buy a house."

Yes, I am going to tap the sign: "It's amazing how much leftist discourse is just them pretending not to understand things, thus making discourse impossible."

This is extremely tiresome and obnoxious. A clitoris, no matter how large, cannot be used to construct a neopenis. We both know this. Do you really think tedious pedantry of this sort is a productive use of your time?

And this exercise in splitting hairs is coming in response to you asserting, falsely, that a phalloplasty is a vaginoplasty in reverse i.e. while a vaginoplasty consists of inverting external genitalia and making them internal, a phalloplasty consists of inverting internal genitalia and making them external. Not only is this an inaccurate description of what a phalloplasty entails, it is wrong to the point of outright anatomical impossibility. But you're giving me a scolding for daring to say "women have no flesh in between their legs which can be used to make a neopenis" as opposed to "women don't have enough flesh in between their legs which can be used to make a neopenis", when every native English speaker in the entire world understands that "X has no Y" is often meant figuratively to mean "X has an insufficient amount of Y for the object under discussion".

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

And this exercise in splitting hairs is coming in response to you asserting, falsely, that a phalloplasty is a vaginoplasty in reverse i.e. while a vaginoplasty consists of inverting external genitalia and making them internal, a phalloplasty consists of inverting internal genitalia and making them external. Not only is this an inaccurate description of what a phalloplasty entails, it is wrong to the point of outright anatomical impossibility. But you're giving me a scolding for daring to say "women have no flesh in between their legs which can be used to make a neopenis" as opposed to "women don't have enough flesh in between their legs which can be used to make a neopenis", when every native English speaker in the entire world understands that "X has no Y" is often meant figuratively to mean "X has an insufficient amount of Y for the object under discussion".

I really hate to be that guy, but all this really does is give new meaning to the word “cockslap.”