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 tax case dealt with whether Section 965 (a deemed repatriation of certain foreign corporations) was constitutional. The big question here was on the realization requirement and this case was really a staking horse for a wealth tax. While the court upheld 965 on the grounds that income was in fact realized and then attributed to the shareholders, it took great pains to suggest no a wealth tax is a direct tax and therefore would require capitation.
The dissent argues that this tax is unlike most other taxes in that it taxes income of the foreign corporation earned in prior years; indeed in years where the owner that owned the stock on a particular date may not have owned the stock. The dissent would say there can only be a constructive recipient (allegedly different but probably in practice similar to the majority’s attribution) when there are close fsctors of control. The dissent — if they knew about tax — could analogize — between CFC taxation and PFIC taxation.
The problem with the dissent is that problem seems more like an as applied v facial challenge. In truth, I think the dissent didn’t like that congress effectively wrote a rule that imposed taxes on CFC’s income going back potentially 30 years. There is more than a hint of retroactivity though the challengers dropped this argument in their cert petition.
More options
Context Copy link