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 -
Jews basically got it declared that talking about Jewish success is antisemitic.
I’ll note Jewish success as an acknowledgement of their success but it’s also done by some right wing antisemitism.
They get 40% of Nobels, at one point 30-40% of Ivy league spots (now lower due to affirmative action), I would guess 25-30% of US billionaires.
Their success is suppressed in the media but when things like this happen they definitely have the ability to hit back.
Yet another consequence of the western belief in equality. If your society was set up in such a way that accepting that certain groups are better than others was completely mundane and unremarkable Jews wouldn't need to pull levers so that talking about Jewish successes became antisemitic. They only do that because they have correctly reasoned that in the modern western world people noticing their disproportionate success rate in society would lead to them becoming disfavoured compared to other groups, which is something nobody wants.
Another factor that I've heard and think is probably somewhat accurate is that they also want to avoid any pressure to feel a sense of noblesse oblige towards poorer whites.
You should see how much income tax they pay on those nobel prizes...
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I don’t think the desire to suppress Jewish success is coming from modern wokism. I think it’s a legitimate fear that when you are 2-3% of population but 30-40% of elites it leaves you extremely exposed to becoming a scapegoat if something bad happens. I believe that is sort of what happened after WW1 Germany. Jews had a lot of people in elite positions in Germany so when they lost WW1 it was easy to pin the loss on them.
Yeah, but the people who lost the war were Ludendorff and Hindenburg, Prussian Junkers both.
The real problem was the attempted communist revolutions in Bavaria and elsewhere, where you had massive Jewish representation amongst their leaders: Ernst Toller, Eugene Levine, Luxembourg and so on.
That wasn't how a lot of Germans saw it at the time. The noble German army had been "stabbed in the back" by the elites.
More options
Context Copy link
Yes, the sprint to Paris through Belgium failed and lead to an extended trench war. Big L on the German high command.
But no one on planet earth could have guessed that America would get involved with the war. The Balfour Declaration was very openly made in response to the zionist promise that they'd bring America in to win the war. Who could been blamed for not seeing that coming?
This makes zero sense. By the time of the balfour declaration, the US had already declared war.
Everyone, first of all the germans, predicted it.
A: If you get the US involved we will make the balfour declaration
B: Okay, we will get the US involved.
US gets involved
A: We make the balfour declaration
What about this makes zero sense?
Promises precede actions. The balfour declaration is a promise - supposedly, the jews would give their own promise (to get the US into the war) in exchange. What kind of moron acts first and is satisfied with a promise in exchange?
This is all conspiratorial nonsense anyway, the causes were well understood by the participants. Anything involving a jew is presented as causal on zero evidence. Actually, there were jews who were far more involved with the true causes, somewhere else in the story: in the german civilian government, who tried to avoid war with the US. They would later be blamed for stabbing germany in the back with this kind of 'traitorous' behaviour. They really are consistently perfidious, no matter what they do. For a people as all-powerful as them, the prime movers of history, the original cause of everything, they seem to be thwarted and condemned at every turn, forced to use subterfuge and misidirection in all of their wildly contradictory dealings.
? That made zero sense.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link