site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 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.

Imagine even trying to explain esoteric right wingers to normies. You'd sound insane and probably get committed to an institution become a person experiencing houselessness somewhere between "hyperborean bodybuilder chipmunks" and "cloning King Charles II as God emperor"

In some way it's the same advantage that leftists have, where you'd need to explain to your mom "biden's new education secretary has an abdl puppy roleplay fetish he acts out in the office"

Most cheap, fast, and easy sneering works based on prejudices: they only have a 2 minutes hate to work with, so they need to fall back on stock targets the media already prepared for them. The deplorable uncle, the gross neckbeard, the dudebro, the nerd who doesn't know his place. All archetypes their audience has been trained to instantly support violence against.
Even Sam Hyde would be too confusing for instant recognition, if only because he triggers too many grotesque stereotypes at once.

I mean, the comment I replied to mentioned Hyde but I wasn't really thinking of him. Fuentes is enough. And Matt Gaetz, who has the most punchable face in Washington and gives me the ick when I hear him speak. And is also on the Trumpy side, while hated by the GOP Establishment -- so he'd be a good target for an anti-Trump ad.

George Santos also crossed my mind (that dude also gives me the creeps) as a good example of a discomfiting Republican who got expelled from Congress for being a lying creep, no less, but since he's gay the left would never use him as a target. I hear he has an Onlyfans now.

Wait, am I just writing a socialcon attack ad against weird nouveau-Republicans?