site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 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.

9
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This feels like a right-wing talking point to damage the lefts brand of being for Democracy. Biden dropping out today is a proper response. The crime here is not that Biden is dropping out today it’s the cover-up for atleast the past 6 months.

"Biden cover up" doesn't hold any water imo. Anyone with eyes could see his stiff shuffling walk and his doddering manner of speaking and draw their own conclusions. People believed what they wanted, and CNN et. al. gave them the respectable cover they needed. Even Scott apparently wrote a post about how it was the Republicans' fault he couldn't recognize it himself sooner.

"No the president is perfectly fit for the role," is simply what I expected any DC Democrat to repeat over and over, because of course, and so I'm not shocked or even mad that they did.

Yeah, it’s very hard for family members to accept dementia in their loved ones. Plus the voter deserves some of the blame for electing them.

Bottom line, the democrats and Biden have done the right thing here, they have de-clownified the world a little. It’s a low bar, but one I am not sure republicans could clear, if Trump was as decrepit.

They did, in the narrowest sense, the partial right thing for the wrong reason. The right thing was never to run him. The next best thing was to fully force him out (since he clearly can’t be president today).

And again, they did them because they thought they’d lose. Which tells us that if they thought it gave them an advantage, they’d happily embrace the dementia patient currently residing at the WH.

I award no points to the democrats.

I award some points to democracy because a monarchy or dictatorship would definitely be stuck with Robinette I the Senile.

Do you think the republicans could force an equally-impaired Trump to renounce earlier? I don’t.

  • Trump is more stubborn

  • Personality cult around him is stronger

  • Loyalty and respect for elders are right-wing values

  • Maga siege mentality

The republicans did with J6

The republicans stopped Trump from taking the crown after J6 because he’s senile?

And to follow up, again if Biden resigned today I wouldn’t be as upset. It’s that the reason for dropping out is allegedly the polls; not his pudding for brains.

Thanks for the kind remarks /s