site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 14, 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.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I'm just trying to prepare myself for how much worse things are going to get under the inevitable eight years of Harris.

Buy a bunch of "Yes" shares for a Kamala victory at a discount, enjoy your windfall.

I'm strongly considering it.

Buy a bunch of "Yes" shares for a Kamala victory at a discount, enjoy your windfall.

With what money? Broke, disabled welfare parasite here.

If you really believe that Kamala is going to steal the election, then the obvious answer is ‘credit card debt’.

then the obvious answer is ‘credit card debt’.

That only nets me ~$500 (the credit limit of my credit card). It also removes most of my meager safety net for sudden expenses — like if medicaid decides not to cover part of my recent ER visit.

Edit: Once again, it seems like most people here don't understand how poor — and not just "poor" — someone can get.

You can take out new credit cards.

Look, I think this is a bad idea and your confidence is delusional doomerism. But if you really believed it, the logical answer would be to fund gambling with debt, from new credit cards if need be.

You can take out new credit cards.

Not in this timeframe. Even if the applications were processed in time, the cards likely wouldn't make it here (Alaska) in the mail before the election.

Some further points, after having given this more thought:

  • As what would I report the resulting income to Social Security? Gambling winnings?
  • To minimize impact to my benefits, I'd have to spend it all in the same month I obtained it
  • And even then, the impact to my benefits would still offset much of the gain (with the added issue of said impact being delayed until a few months later) — the "welfare trap" is a bitch.