site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 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.

7
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Is no one else interested in Bob Menendez?

Robert Menendez, senator from New Jersey, has been indicted for corruption. Again.

The first time, in 2015, he was indicted for corruption and bribery. It ended up going to trial, reaching a mistrial, and eventually the Justice department dropped the charges. The private businessman was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison, and his sentence was commuted by President Trump.

This time, he's again being indicted for corruption and bribery, but now the evidence is comical and flagrant. Gold bars and stacks of cash hidden in his laundry and about his house. The cash was apparently from American businessmen, but the gold was from the Egyptian government to provide intelligence beneficial to them.

The culture war angle should be pretty obvious. Menendez is defiant, and doesn't look like he's likely to resign. Democrats are calling for him to resign. Republicans, as they usually do, pounced.

(As an aside, does no one want to talk about Fetterman, either? I figured the Senate dress code might have elicited at least one top-level post, especially given the twitter menswear brouhaha of the last week.)

Does this have a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024? Will Menendez simply slink away is disgrace? Does any of this matter when Menendez has been one of the Democrats best foot soldiers in the Senate, particularly when it comes to immigration? Find out next time on Dragonball Z Culture War Roundup!

Does this have a chance of swinging the Senate in 2024?

Twenty years ago another New Jersey Democrat had his Senate re-election campaign thwarted by ethics investigations, and the state Supreme Court threw out the election rulebook so that a beloved former Governor could replace him on the ticket even though it was past the deadline. I suspect that we can rely on NJ as much for election skullduggery favoring Democrats as we can for it to elect corrupt Senators.