site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025

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.

And then Trump shows back up treating Trudeau as a domestic partisan enemy because ??

Because he is?

Trudeau (like Zelensky, maybe) made the mistake of aligning himself with the (current) losing side on US politics, strongly and explicitly. There's no way he's walking back from that; he also hates Trump, and Trump knows it.

Everything is personal with Trump; kind of a weird way to run a country, but easy enough to work with if you aren't an idiot.

That may be his thought process, but it's retarded.

Trudeau is who he is because that's (apparently) what plays for Canadians. His domestic policy is as a theater kid lib with delusions of "punching above our weight" in international relations. When it comes to actual relations with America he plays ball with Trump or Biden because everyone understands the reality that Canada is the junior party.

There was no Zelenskyy/Hunter Biden issue. Trudeau just is a lib why would he agree with Trump politically? It's one thing to say one should not personally wrong Trump (already crazy, given his nature) but another to say no one can differ on policy. And if being a lib is an issue what of Starmer?

This isn't some Vance dressing down via speech.

It's retarded to even care about Canadian domestic politics in the first place given that it's irrelevant to a fundamentally subordinate relationship with the US. It may be annoying for Trumpists to see pretty theater kid Trudeau on the Daily Show being fellated by whoever has that now (even that more or less stopped as his popularity dropped) or to see libs whine about going to Canada but none of that matters. Nobody actually goes to Canada because America is richer and better, and when the US says "jump" (like "arrest a Huawei exec and hurt relations with China") Canada jumps.

But, if you do care, it's retarded because Trudeau was already a dead man walking. The only thing standing in the way of the CPC sweeping him and his party into the dustbin is Trump himself.

There's nothing "easy" about dealing with this sort of retardation.

Like, I think the case that this is just fundamentally predatory - targeting a nation that is both inherently dependent on the US and has actively made itself moreso due to bad policy - is actually a much more sensible one. If this is actually his thinking...yikes.

"Trudeau is retarded" is not a controversial position -- even people who like him are not doing it on the basis that he's smart.

Trudeau just is a lib why would he agree with Trump politically?

Policy is not the issue, it's his history of moralizing with Trump on unrelated issues; 'too woke' essentially -- and now Trump is cancelling him along with all the other woke stuff.

Like, I think the case that this is just fundamentally predatory - targeting a nation that is both inherently dependent on the US and has actively made itself moreso due to bad policy - is actually a much more sensible one.

If that's what Trump is thinking then he's retarded too -- while the actual gross balance going south is not that large compared to other partners, it's primarily inputs to a wide cross-section of American industry. My guess is that the Trump tariffs on Canadian imports will be more harmful to US businesses than the lame-ass 'retaliatory' ones Trudeau is proposing.

Self-owns all round I guess -- but somebody who is willing to build a personal relationship with Trump is what's needed to mend it. "Shamrock Summit II" anyone?

I'm not even sure what youre referring to tbh. Maybe I'm just totally desensitized (it's been a decsde since "it's current_year"). But it is indeed retarded to take Trudeau being Trudeau (in a way that imposes no costs unlike the Ukraine war) into an economic war when he'll bend on actual policy. Send Vance to give a speech.

If that's what Trump is thinking then he's retarded too -- while the actual gross balance going south is not that large compared to other partners, it's primarily inputs to a wide cross-section of American industry.

I legitimately suspect someone from the Zeihan school of thought convinced him that he could exploit the weaknesses in the confederation to maybe cause Alberta to secede and end Canada.

It explains/fits with a few things. The lack of clear criteria to end the tariffs, his inability to shut the fuck up about the 51st state thing (like a kid whose just heard of a cool new idea and can't wait to share it with everyone) and his general desire to expand territory.

If he could meaningfully change the borders of the US he is going down in history.