site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 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.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The overarching goal for many jews is to shape society in a way that benefits jews. Low social cohesion, diversity, and multiculturalism makes jews one group among many that don't stick out. Nihilistic consumerism and the idea that nothing really matters or is important beyond ourselves makes it easier for a jewish subgroup to increase their power and reduces their risk of being considered outsiders. All forms of group oriented thinking are labled as bad. Jews don't want to live in a homogenous culture with strong norms, traditions and a strong sense of identity.

This plan has backfired somewhat as the jewish community seems to be getting high on their own supply with plummeting birth rates among liberal jews and much of the deconstructivist philosophy being swallowed by jews themselves. Jews are engaging in extreme dysgenics with their least intelligent and probably overall least genetically healthy elements breeding at a high rate while lawyers on Manhattan have below South Korean birth rates.

Jews are engaging in extreme dysgenics with their least intelligent and probably overall least genetically healthy elements breeding at a high rate while lawyers on Manhattan have below South Korean birth rates.

Is this true? I wouldn’t think Orthodox Jews are necessarily lower IQ than reform Jews. They have lower secular achievement, sure, but that’s because they don’t care/are religiously forbidden from it. Using that to claim Orthodox Jews are generally lower IQ than reform Jews is like claiming Mormons are generally worse in luck than non-Mormons because they’re underrepresented among gambling winners despite being closer than average to Las Vegas.

I thought the IQ difference was more from the fact that the Jews that have 5 or 10 kids are not Ashkenazi, and are more likely to be sephardic and so on?

I was under the impression that Orthodox Jews were more likely to be ashkenazi?