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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
It's been one long campaign to purge anyone who doesn't support Trump. Neocons are fine as long as they support Trump.
And since Trump has pretty thoroughly rejected the Neocon agenda, most (all?) of the prominent Neocons have found themselves unwilling or unable to support Trump. They instead support the Democrats, who have largely signaled willingness to adopt their policies. I remember people claiming that John Bolton's involvement in the first Trump administration was proof that nothing had changed. And yet, Bolton got no policy wins that I'm aware of, and now he has written a tell-all about how Trump is a monster and everyone should vote Democrat. There is a proverb about judging someone by the quality of their enemies; this seems to be an example of that.
If you disapprove of the neocon agenda, then the fact that the Democrats are inviting the Neocons in should worry you. If you support the Neocon agenda, then by all means say so. Claiming that Red Tribe is still aligned with the neocon agenda, though, is simply not factual. Again, you may not like how that turn happened, and you may even think it was dishonest to change policy without explicitly admitting error, and it is at least arguable that you would be correct. None of that changes the fact that Trump is by far the least warmongering president we've had since at least Clinton, and likely much earlier, and that this lack of warmongering is in fact one of the things his base explicitly endorses.
Trump increased military spending in his first term.
Yet he did not start any new wars, and actively worked to withdraw from existing ones, with the deep state likely violating black-letter law to successfully resist those efforts.
Increased military spending is almost certainly necessary, because it is increasingly evident that our military is clapped out and obsolete. Our navy in particular appears to be in a particularly dire state.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link