site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 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.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I had a girlfriend who worked for a resettlement agency and they did have to deal with cases of goats being killed and butchered at apartment complexes. I could buy killing a few geese/ducks but I highly doubt cats. If the populations of duck/geese are similar to parks in my area there no way they depopulated a park. The picture going around of a black man with a goose appears to be from Columbus could very possibly be fresh road kill. I've seen white people dressing a road kill deer on the side of the road, 100% legal in my state.

but I highly doubt cats

Local law enforcement says it happened.

https://www.wowt.com/2024/08/21/woman-arrested-allegedly-killing-cat-eating-it-front-neighbors/

That's probably what started the cat thing, but it's a different town and I doubt that woman is a recent Haitian immigrant. The duck thing, on the other hand, was supposedly a complaint made at a council meeting.

Hell, my great grandfather's brother used to listen to police scanners for news of animal strikes so he could head over for some free fresh meat. I'm sure it's reasonably common in a lot of rural/rural-adjacent areas.

I had a family member hit a deer and before a tow truck arrived, some guy walked up to ask if he wanted the carcass. This was maybe five years ago?

In Texas, he would be arrested for poaching. Lots of other states allow it though.

RFK posts on The Motte. You heard it here first.

I thought RFK Jr.'s story was about throwing a dead bear into Central Park. You don't have to go too far outside a city to find people harvesting roadkill deer.

Yeah this wasn’t (isn’t?) uncommon in my very white hometown.

Username checks out.

Personally I'm in favor of people eating Canada geese. If we can just break the Haitians up into smaller groups and relocate them near areas with problem geese, then move them around as the goose population "somehow" drops, we can make good use of these refugees.