site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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.

10
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

And today, we witness another white supremacist attack by a person of colour

A U-Haul truck crashed into security barriers around Lafayette Square across the street from the White House Monday night, the Secret Service said. The driver of the truck had a Nazi flag with him when he was arrested, according to court documents.

U.S. Park Police on Tuesday identified the driver as Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri. Kandula appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon, where he was determined to be a flight risk and a "significant risk to the community."

"There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi tweeted.

No weapons, ammunition or explosives were found in the truck, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Secret Service Tuesday and obtained by CBS News.

The officer then witnessed the suspect, identified as Kandula, walking around to the back of the U-Haul and pulling out a flag with a Nazi swastika and a backpack, the documents state.

In the interview, he made threats against President Biden, saying that he had intended to "get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation," the documents said.

I cannot find it now, but I did see a study on twitter that geolocated 70% of all online wignats to Brazil, Mexico, India and Philippines. Perhaps the next casus belli against unfriendly brown autocrats shall be 'combatting white supremacy'.

Indian white-supremacists aren't as unlikely as they sound, they're certainly people around who heard their white brethren advocating for "Aryan Supremacy", looked around and asked, "hey, ain't I an Aryan too?" and ran with it.

I'm just surprised that there aren't more of them, the whole country fetishizes fairness and descent from the Aryan invaders, but I suppose accusations of street-shitting probably drive them away most of them.

I speak spanish and I've spent some time in that part of the world, and yo:

There are some fuking WHITE SUPREMACIST latinos out their bro. They are fucking crazy about it.

Probably some left over casta shit, or a weird extrapolation of creole types being wildly racist against natives; as though they aren't all mixed a fuck 600 years into the project.

Latinos have always been white for me. If you are from European descent and culturally Christian you are white. You don't have to be A4 skin color.

Edit: To sound cynical - it is every American's god given right to look down to blacks and natives (the same way for Europeans with gypsies). And when you remove that right they become cranky. So one can expect a lot of Asian and Indian "white" supremacists in next couple of years. Not only Hispanic. The whole point of the social pyramid is not to be at the bottom.

This is what SJW's mean when they say white isn't an ethnicity it's a 'constructed position of power'. The category of white people has expanded and can expand further because it's not defined by a skin tone it's a coalition of people who have a God given right to look down on black people.

No it is also about ethnicity. My theory a couple of years ago was that if you are descendant from country that has become economic powerhouse - you become honorary white. Japanese became that in the 80s, Koreans in the 90s, Chinese in 2000s.

Indians are not there yet - if India develops they will become, but Indian Muslims will have harder time. The same way headscarfed Turks, Bosnians and Albanians are in their separate category.

TLDR: To be white you also have to eat pork :)

Have you seen these alt right rallies of the last 7 years? Half the people are at least half Hispanic, Asian or Indian. American racial politics is fundamentally blacks vs everyone else. Most of the Asians and Indians who act very woke and talk about white supremacy are just a slightly darker shade of the white progressives they so hope to emulate.

Woke politics really is a dream come true for Brahmins in the West.

You get to echo the high-status politics of the ruling class, play the oppression card yourself when appropriate, and still hate and oppress lower Indian castes without anyone really caring.

Brahmins in the west, at least America, don't care at all about caste. It's not something relevant here.

American racial politics is fundamentally blacks (and upper-class whites, and single women, and people still influenced by the slowly-dying "third-worldist" leftism popular in the latter years of the Cold War) vs everyone else.

FTFY

This shit tends to explode. Look at Balkans where you have a mix of Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians as well as various ethnicities such Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Albanians and others. These peoples and religions lived in that place for centuries and yet these fault lines reappear again and again. Similar story now in Lebanon. One day Beirut is enlightened Paris of the East and the next day Christians and Muslims and Druze or people from any of 18 recognized religious groups as well as various ethnicities such as Arabs, Kurds, Turks or Armenians and others - it all can explode in sudden violence. I guess we now all live in Balkanized world.

Honestly he just comes across as a weird schizo, but it sure is amusing to see the uptick in Latinx and Indian nazis.

If memory serves, the leader of the far-right "Proud Boys" group was mestizo.

In the interview, he made threats against President Biden, saying that he had intended to "get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation," the documents said.

per the rethoric I see of Jan 6th, I don't see anything unusual about this. Good thing he was stopped before he conquered america for the 3rd Reich Civilization style.