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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
The answer, to me, is obvious. Ukraine is a global hub for political corruption, influence peddling, and the like. As, one who is old enough would note, was also true of Russia for most of the Clinton and Bush II administrations. That means, that the well connected wet their beaks in Ukraine. Which is the party of the well connected? Yup Democrats. Dem support for Ukraine is very much top-down (lots of Democrat policy is like this now, although it wasn't always true), and Republican opposition is grassroots oriented (a party in flux where there is currently an elite-grassroots power struggle).
You might object and say, "Ukraine is peanuts, Arkansas has a bigger GDP." And that is probably true, its not worth even googling for this point. The point is that Alabama is orders of magnitude less corrupt than Ukraine, so it has no board positions for failsons, no $10 million consulting contracts for Paul Manafort types. Sure, a friendly politician can expect a spot at Wal Mart after they retire/are ousted, but that is both time delayed, and much less profitable than what is available in Ukraine and Ukraine-like countries.
Ukraine is peanuts. Biden (who has never been particularly greedy personally) made $15 million in "clean" money from speaking fees and book royalties in the 3 years between leaving office as VP and starting to work full-time on his presidential campaign. He never had the chance to fully monetize the favours he banked as Senator for MBNA, but based on other greedy ex-officials he could have got multiple family members $1 million a year sinecures - possibly more if James Biden went into private equity Jared Kushner style. I think the total Biden family take from US sources if the Bidens had been Clinton-tier greedy would be mid double figures.
The biggest sources of dodgy foreign money in US politics are China and the Gulf Arabs. Hunter Biden took about $5 million in Chinese money (House Republicans say over $8 million, but that includes Devon Archer's share) without trying very hard. As President, Biden has pursued anti-Chinese policies that would cause that flow of money to stop. The Biden family has (unlike the Trumps) made no serious attempt to go after Arab money, but we know from Kushner that a Presidential-tier bribe would run into hundreds of millions.
The House Republicans' estimate for the total Biden family take from Ukraine is $6.5 million. There is third-hand rumour that the real figure is around $10 million. If the Biden administration is for sale, it is more expensive than that.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link