site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024

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.

5
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

A Tone-Shift in the Ukraine War

Lately, I've noticed that the tone of the discussion regarding Ukraine both on the Motte and on X has changed considerably. Notably, it seems that people are taking a much more pessimistic view of Ukraine's chances. The default assumption now is that Ukraine will lose the war.

I think a stalemate is still quite possible, but the more optimistic assumptions that Ukraine would regain lost territory (or comically, Crimea) are now a dead letter. So what, exactly, are our leaders thinking? Recently, Macron went off-narrative a bit, suggesting that France could send troops into Ukraine. More ominously, Secretary of State Blinken said that Ukraine will join NATO.

Perhaps Western leaders view this sabre-rattling as good for their electoral chances. And, until recently, the war was seen as a relatively cost-effective way to weaken Russia. (Sadly, this seems to have failed as Russia has freely exported oil to India and China and is making armaments in great numbers).

But what of Ukrainians themselves? Will they tire of being NATO's cat's paw? It's impossible to find good numbers on how many Ukrainian men have been killed so far in this war. It's likely in the hundreds of thousands. Towns and villages throughout the country are devoid of men, as the men (hunted by conscription) either flee, hide, or are sent to the fronts.

User @Sloot shared this nuclear-grade propoganda. While Ukrainian men fight and die in some trench, an increasing number of Ukrainian women are finding new homes (and Tinder dates) in Germany. Concern about female fidelity has always been a prominent feature of wartime propaganda. But, this takes it to a new level, since the women are in a different country, making new, better lives for themselves. How many will ever even return to Ukraine?

Ukrainian men are getting a raw deal in an effort to reconquer lost territory, whose residents probably want to be part of Russia anyway. Why should Ukrainians fight and die for some abstract geopolitical goal of NATO?

Concern about female fidelity has always been a prominent feature of wartime propaganda. But, this takes it to a new level, since the women are in a different country, making new, better lives for themselves. How many will ever even return to Ukraine?

And then in the very next breath Westerners complain about how the vast majority of refugee migrants initially coming to the west from the middle east etc. tend to be men. They fail to realise that it's not just a way to allow the women to take the easier route via plane once their family members have settled down but also a very good method of ensuring their chastity and honor stay intact and no suspicion can be laid upon their feet.

Everything we say and do makes complete rational sense. We're just starting from a different (and I would argue, better) set of axioms than you.

Where are you from?

Pakistan

You people are so great and superior. Aren't you worried that by reading and posting on this website you are contaminating yourself with the filthy Westerner mindset and that your customs and traditions will be lost?

If not you, your sons and daughters.

This is nothing but personal antagonism.

Which since you have a long record of this, gets you a ban for another week.

Maybe stop dancing to @BurdensomeCount's tune, since he clearly knows exactly how to make you lose it.

Nah, I believe I have a duty to let people know there are better alternatives than the current social system state they are stuck in and pointing out situations in which our system would have outperformed your system is a particularly good way to do so. Islam is a proselytising religion after all you know...

contaminating yourself with the filthy Westerner mindset

Oh boy, It's way too late for me on that front, I'm already 80%+ western at this moment in time and I'd expect my future trajectory won't shift me much from here. Plus it's not like the West doesn't have a lot of good things going for it, it's just that Westerners don't need to be told about them because they already follow them to some extent. They need to be told about the good things they don't yet subscribe to.

My preferred system is not the one we have back home, it's a syncretic mix of that and the western system, biased if anything more towards the western way.

our system would have outperformed your system is a particularly good way to do so.

I don't see how your system would have outperformed. I don't really get the end-goal of the muslim emigrants. They're just leaving a poor shithole (muslim-majority country) to a wealthier country (formerly white-majority country), and their descendants are gradually becoming Westernized. Then they acquire a quite Jewish ideological flexibility: oppressed minority in the streets, islamic conqueror in the sheets... That can't be good psychologically.

So what's the point? Coloring the map?

Westernized insofar as 'getting western money and defiling their women' counts as getting westernized. You can repeat the cycle indefinitely with a slave imported from the home country to churn out ideological clones who have no qualms taking from a west too scared of being racist to plug obvious loopholes.