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 -
I'm confident they'll find a way to criminalize it
That’s much more likely to go to the Supreme Court than the current ruling. For example, if the court ruled that they wouldn’t allow a Saudi-affiliated fund or individual of some kind to pay because Trump was a political figure that would be naked interference in federal politics that SCOTUS would be much more interested in. They already tried to skirt around this by suggesting he couldn’t borrow the money from banks ‘registered in New York’ which once including affiliates is pretty much any bank, but even then there are a huge number of funds or individuals-related-to-funds that could lend the Trump Organization the money. NY might try to challenge it, but precedent is tough in these cases (see what happened to the building they tried to seize by claiming it was owned by Iran) and if they draw the lines so expansively that everyone involved in finance is included because Wall Street is technically in New York then SCOTUS is again going to look upon that pretty dimly; preemption rights already limit the state’s authority across a huge number of financial services matters. Preemption precedents in finance strongly suggests that this action - under one interpretation barring Trump from raising money from any major financial organization - already violates existing federal legislation and there would also be extensive commerce clause considerations if, say, a Utah bank with an office in NY was blocked from lending the money.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link