site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 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.

4
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

My headcanon is that Biden is going nuclear on the Democratic party. He gave his life to the party, got ousted against his will after a lifetime of service, and then decided to burn the whole thing down. First, by endorsing Kamala to prevent an open primary, then sabotaging their messaging by untimely contradictions, and finally by doing this. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump and Biden worked this out so Trump can hand out J6 pardons without having to wade through as much shit. Biden protects himself, Hunter, and further delegitimizes the institution that threw him under the bus. Trump won, so he can afford to generous and by all accounts isn't actually vindictive. Probably not what's actually going on, but when the dramatisation eventually happens, I'm sure the writers will heavily suggest it.

Biden might be mad at Kamala and Democrats, but he certainly is not working with Trump, particularly on J6. I think Biden has truly internalized a lot of the propaganda and thinks Trump is a Putin puppet who tried to overthrow democracy on J6. Just like with the fake DUI claim he made about his dead wife, there are many Bidenisms that are no longer lies for him. As George Costanza would say, its not a lie if you believe it.

An amusing theory, albeit unlikely. But actually burning down the Democratic Party is probably the biggest gift Biden could give to the left (i.e. the leftist wing of the Democratic Party + those disenchanted due to being even further left), since they've been claiming for decades that the Democratic Party is too far right and the "real people" want a leftist party. Of course, building up a new political party from the ashes of the Democratic Party would take several years, and would likely just be filled with leftist populist grifters and not actually make anyone happy. And it's much more likely the Democratic Party just limps along continuing to not leave enough air for another party to take its place opposing the Republican Party.

In the meantime, republicans win senate races in New Mexico and Virginia, making the left decidedly unhappy, and the new party may call itself socialist but in practice moderates into centrist machine politics faster than a barefoot jackrabbit on the blacktop in july.

I doubt Biden (if he’s lucid) is particularly scared of Trump going after him. He didn’t go after Hillary and Trump disliked her much more than he dislikes Biden.

Aside from which, the idea that an elderly dementia patient poses a threat to anybody is farcical.