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The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. My sister and I, living in Germany, have a very

The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. My sister and I, living in Germany, have a very loving relationship, but we absolutely disagree on almost everything political and basically are stuck in our seperate bubbles. This gave us an interesting observation: 5 years ago it took us about two to three months, to have a fight over something that started to become a hot-topic in the US. Over time, this has shrunken to about 48 hours. This is not because our bubbles are particularly US centric, more that it has become envogue to simply discuss whatever gets "the other side" going. In particularly, it is very interesting that "the other side" is aligning ever more so with the US political spectrum, where in the past such a thing was unheard of, atleast here in Germany. I've heard similar stories from Friends in other Non-US Nations, be it in Asia, Africa, aswell as other european nations. Does anyone else have similar stories?

ixtli 6y ago
This tracks for me, having lots of friends and connections outside of America. Personally I think it’s yet more evidence that what we can often dismissively refer to as a “culture war.” Is a disagreement over fundamental moral issues that we just refuse to talk about directly or really act on.
- TMWNN 6y ago
  An example of how the US argues over the death penalty in a way which doesn't happen elsewhere, but perhaps should: >In fact, opinion polls show that Europeans and Canadians crave executions almost as much as their American counterparts do. It's just that their politicians don't listen to them. In other words, if these countries' political cultures are morally superior to America's, it's because they're less democratic. "Death in Venice" (http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091009111114/http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/europeans-support-capital-punishment-too.php http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091009111114/http://tpmlive...), Joshua Micah Marshall, The New Republic, 31 July 2000
  - Retric 6y ago
    Wisconsin outlawed the death penalty in 1853, so that’s hardly a new issue. What’s changed is how much such things are emphasized. Rather than the 2020 presidential candidates talking about meaningful policy differences it was mostly about token issues and identity politics. Occasionally, they would signal which groups they where supporting, but as quietly as possible. That’s how unpopular choices can become policy. It breaks down to people with strong preferences deciding issues rather than the majority deciding issues. Farmers care a lot more about subsidies than most people making farm subsidies an easy choice.
eznzt 6y ago
>The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. It does not seem so crazy to me, after decades of cultural imperialism from America, that we are mirroring the same patterns of behaviour and fighting the same battles. (Just to be clear, I'm not against imperialism) If American politics are straining your relationship with your sister and you are not even American, sorry to put it like this but only you two have yourselves to blame. Next time your sister brings the topic up say "yeah right" and move on.
- Roritharr 6y ago
  >If American politics are straining your relationship with your sister and you are not even American, sorry to put it like this but only you two have yourselves to blame. Next time your sister brings the topic up say "yeah right" and move on. Don't worry, that's why I emphasised the loving relationship part, we really don't take our political opinions into this and wouldn't have emotional fights about them. Family comes before all that.
- PopeDotNinja 6y ago
  For what it’s worth, I’m an American & American politics strains my American relationship with my American friends & family. Fuck this red/blue shit.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    I don’t understand “red/blue” shit. For me, it’s “improving quality of life for wage earners and affirming civil liberties / vs not doing the aforementioned” shit. A cousin in my family has a very valid grievance against business owner uncles that support politicians who don’t want to provide meal breaks or bathroom breaks. This cousin has to work 12 to 14 hour shifts, and eat standing up while working and sneak in bathroom breaks. That’s not “red/blue” shit.
    - rossdavidh 6y ago
      Thank you for demonstrating the phenomenon so well.
enriquto 6y ago
My hobby: pitting woke issues against each other, a la https://xkcd.com/966/ https://xkcd.com/966/ For example, cultural appropriation (or cultural colonialism) versus blackface shaming. First you get somebody to agree about the problematic nature of cultural colonization. Then, you corner them to agree that blackface being problematic in your culture is an unnatural imposition of the U.S. culture into ours. For best results, you "prime" two people separately with each side of the argument, and throw them together in a party, while you drink beer.
- stareatgoats 6y ago
  Modern journalism and social networks in a nutshell. Wonder when the next big thing will be helping people to sort out their differences, instead of pitting folks against each other. Maybe the latter is what you do after you finished your beer and popcorn, but it wasn't quite clear in that case.
  - enriquto 6y ago
    It's just my way of overturning insufferable arguments, there's not much depth to it.
- krebs_liebhaber 6y ago
  "You want to uproot the rich elite? What are you, some kind of anti-Semite?"
- throwaway8582 6y ago
  A better example would be: "Islam is right about women"
Swizec 6y ago
When we were middle school kids in Slovenia we used to have huge fights and “gang” beef over east side vs west side. We had no idea they were geographical, we just picked a side based on which rapper you liked. American culture is weird like that. We all consume it via mass media. I think it’s just an empire thing. During Victorian times everyone was trying to be a little British, or a little French, maybe a little German. Depends who’s closest to you. A long time ago, everyone tried to be a little Roman. Another way of putting it: News doesn’t tell you what to think, it tells you what to think about.
- cvhashim 6y ago
  > We had no idea they were geographical, we just picked a side based on which rapper you liked. No offense, I just find this hilarious for some reason. Kids can be so impressionable.
  - Swizec 6y ago
    It’s even funnier when you realize that this was some 4 years into English classes for most of us and we could barely understand the lyrics.
dguest 6y ago
It's also possible that the US political system is aligning with the rest of the world. The American Republicans now seem a lot more authoritarian and the American Democrats more socialist than they were 10 years ago. I can't say if it aligns more with the divide in the rest of the world, but saying US politics "spills over" into the rest of the world makes it sound like the US is static. The parties are evolving though: maybe the US is just shifting to toward a more internationally palatable ideological divide.
- Delk 6y ago
  I can't speak of the political climates of the majority of the world, but at least in Europe multi-party systems aren't that uncommon, and those tend towards less of an ideological divide between the parties than the American bipartisan system, from what I've gathered. So I'm not sure I entirely understand what you mean with the divide being more internationally palatable. "Spilling over" also doesn't imply the source is static.
pelasaco 6y ago
Well, you definitely don't live in Leipzig. I can tell you that not everywhere in Germany is like that. In some cities, specially in the East, depending of the soccer team, profession or political views, you are simply not allowed to frequent some places.
- technics256 6y ago
  I'm American and Hispanic and been to leipzig and the surrounding areas quite often since my best friend lives there. I've partied and bbq'd in the various Dorfs surrounding as well and have never remotely encountered such a thing.
  - pelasaco 6y ago
    I'm German and been to US many times. Some of my best friends lives there. I've partied and bbq'd in the various cities there and have never remotely encountered such thing like the one cited in the linked article. Do they exist? Definitely. What is your point?
krebs_liebhaber 6y ago
America is colonizing the rest of the developed world. There are probably at least a billion people worldwide (mostly in Europe, but also among Third-World elites) who act American and are invested in America's issues despite never having set foot in the country. The internet has exacerbated this greatly. Just look at the BLM protests in Poland and Japan... or the Amerikaner "digital nomads" who are able to live in foreign countries thanks to the Anglo Internet's worldwide penetration. https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/basic-concepts-1kyae https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/basic-concepts-1kyae
- tartoran 6y ago
  Somewhat true. I have friends and relatives in Eastern Europe heavily rooting for the Biden or Trump (usually the less educated or even uneducated) and yet they have no real stake in it but it’s as if they’re voting themselves. And I think they realized that America sets the tone so whoever gets the power will influence them too eventually.
  - MagnumOpus 6y ago
    > yet they have no real stake in it Diplomatic relations with the US matter a lot for the economy and trade - as you've seen in many countries over the last four years. If you support an authoritarian/populist/homophobic ruler at home (in Poland or Hungary or Brazil or wherever), you also support Trump because he will support your country where a Biden administration will be far less likely to boost Hungary if it costs relationship points with Germany or France...
- maneesh 6y ago
  I don't understand the reference to digital nomads. How is it related? There are nomads from everywhere as well.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- burntoutfire 6y ago
mumblemumble 6y ago
> Does anyone else have similar stories? I'm seeing it, too, and it's annoying. I'm American, but a while back I stopped consuming anything but local news in English for the sake of my sanity. Doesn't work anymore. I keep wondering if maybe I just need to learn a new language? Maybe the mind virus hasn't yet spread to the Swahili coast. . .
skim_milk 6y ago
I'm at risk of sounding like I'm nitpicking, but I'm not following the popular narrative that it's a problem with America that spilled over into the rest of the world that's at the center of your story. Many people seem to agree that the rise of social media and its correlated loneliness have pushed people down their rabbithole/echo chamber/whatever people want to call it nowadays. Opposed to the popular narrative, the apparent view from people into the social sciences seem to believe it's a problem with social technologies, rather than it being the inferior North American cultures bleeding out and corrupting our pure untouched global cultures. I have to agree with the other view that all of us on this planet we are barely evolved hairless tribal monkeys using technology that makes us more anxious instead of secure - and all of these problems are actually pretty predictable from this perspective. It's not Americanification, we just naturally start acting like this when we start using things that make us anxious for clicks.
- bergstromm466 6y ago
  I think what we’re seeing has more to do with unaccountable invisible architectures (law/governance systems, IP and money) that obscure production processes, than that it’s anything to do with human nature or social media, or us being ‘hairless monkeys’.
seneca 6y ago
> The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. It's more of a bidirectional soup, I think. A lot of the tumult in the US is due to the breakdown of historic norms and views. That has been sped up by social media, but the actual ideas taking hold on one side are largely Marxist, by way of the Frankfurt school, in nature. Those both originate within your own boarders. What you're experiencing is more an echo bouncing back than a spillover, in my opinion.
ck425 6y ago
One thing I've noticed is the whole sale importation of the BLM movement to the UK. I'm not overly aware of the issue facing ethnic minorities in the UK (I live in Scotland where it's almost entirely white with some small asian communities, which isn't to say there isn't racism just few people to discuss it with personally) but from reading around racism in the UK is very different to the US. Despite this we've adopted BLM views wholesale, including call to defund the police. I fully support discussing racism in the UK and what we can do to counter it but I don't get why we're discussing it as if it's the exact same situation over here with the same solutions. This might to a symptom of London centric-ness where there is far more ethnic diversity and therefore racism.
- notriskfree 6y ago
  I agree the UK is not the US and we have different issues in the UK that we are dealing with. Living and working near London I always assumed the increased ethnic diversity and global outlook in the capital led to less racism. I assumed it was the rural homogenous countryside that had more endemic racism. I guess we all misunderstand each other all the time.
  - cmdshiftf4 6y ago
    >Living and working near London I always assumed the increased ethnic diversity and global outlook in the capital led to less racism. From https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.... >In the short run, however, immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. New evidence from the US suggests that in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods residents of all races tend to ‘hunker down’. Trust (even of one's own race) is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friends fewer. There's plenty of secondary sources reporting on this study if you want to have a look for the varying opinions on it but I thought I'd link the source of it itself. Whether less trust, less cohesion etc. == more racism is something I'm not in a position to draw a conclusion over, but it's interesting nonetheless.
    - 6y ago
unwabuisi 6y ago
America's biggest export is culture
dakna 6y ago
I think what we see here is the result of social media A/B testing on how to get votes, and this playbook is now followed by the rest of the world. In a democratic society, you have to influence the public opinion to stay/get in power. Propaganda is free, information costs money. If the majority of voters are not willing to pay for quality journalism, you have to get them engaged by fueling outrage and projecting fear. It doesn't matter what side, as long as there are sides you can join and identify with. Combined with the fact that American politics do have an effect on the quality of life in other parts of the world (trade wars and refugee crisis for example) and the working (aka non-capital) class suffers in most western societies, it is very easy to project similar fears and foster divisiveness.
- themaninthedark 6y ago
  Who says that paying for journalism would fix this problem? Both CNN and FOX are cable news, not broadcast for free. Go back to the start of the Second Gulf war and you had the NYT and other media outlets complicit in the WMD lies.
  - dakna 6y ago
    It seems to work in other countries. Neither CNN nor Fox is quality journalism, "quality" being the adjective you left out. The NYT also issued an apology for their coverage about WMD which was not rigorously fact checked. One of the reporters, Judith Miller, later joined Fox News. Quality doesn't mean 100% correct all the time, it means significantly better than the alternative. Comparing the coverage of different sources is part of how you can reach your own conclusions, instead of blindly adopting whatever opinion is broadcasted to you.
alexpetralia 6y ago
Yes, similar to Schelling points, I call these Schelling fulcra. Not "what do people focus on?" but specifically "what issue illustrates our tribal divisions?"

ixtli 6y ago

This tracks for me, having lots of friends and connections outside of America. Personally I think it’s yet more evidence that what we can often dismissively refer to as a “culture war.” Is a disagreement over fundamental moral issues that we just refuse to talk about directly or really act on.

TMWNN 6y ago
An example of how the US argues over the death penalty in a way which doesn't happen elsewhere, but perhaps should: >In fact, opinion polls show that Europeans and Canadians crave executions almost as much as their American counterparts do. It's just that their politicians don't listen to them. In other words, if these countries' political cultures are morally superior to America's, it's because they're less democratic. "Death in Venice" (http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091009111114/http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/europeans-support-capital-punishment-too.php http://wayback.archive.org/web/20091009111114/http://tpmlive...), Joshua Micah Marshall, The New Republic, 31 July 2000
- Retric 6y ago
  Wisconsin outlawed the death penalty in 1853, so that’s hardly a new issue. What’s changed is how much such things are emphasized. Rather than the 2020 presidential candidates talking about meaningful policy differences it was mostly about token issues and identity politics. Occasionally, they would signal which groups they where supporting, but as quietly as possible. That’s how unpopular choices can become policy. It breaks down to people with strong preferences deciding issues rather than the majority deciding issues. Farmers care a lot more about subsidies than most people making farm subsidies an easy choice.

eznzt 6y ago

>The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. It does not seem so crazy to me, after decades of cultural imperialism from America, that we are mirroring the same patterns of behaviour and fighting the same battles. (Just to be clear, I'm not against imperialism) If American politics are straining your relationship with your sister and you are not even American, sorry to put it like this but only you two have yourselves to blame. Next time your sister brings the topic up say "yeah right" and move on.

Roritharr 6y ago
>If American politics are straining your relationship with your sister and you are not even American, sorry to put it like this but only you two have yourselves to blame. Next time your sister brings the topic up say "yeah right" and move on. Don't worry, that's why I emphasised the loving relationship part, we really don't take our political opinions into this and wouldn't have emotional fights about them. Family comes before all that.
PopeDotNinja 6y ago
For what it’s worth, I’m an American & American politics strains my American relationship with my American friends & family. Fuck this red/blue shit.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  I don’t understand “red/blue” shit. For me, it’s “improving quality of life for wage earners and affirming civil liberties / vs not doing the aforementioned” shit. A cousin in my family has a very valid grievance against business owner uncles that support politicians who don’t want to provide meal breaks or bathroom breaks. This cousin has to work 12 to 14 hour shifts, and eat standing up while working and sneak in bathroom breaks. That’s not “red/blue” shit.
  - rossdavidh 6y ago
    Thank you for demonstrating the phenomenon so well.

enriquto 6y ago

My hobby: pitting woke issues against each other, a la https://xkcd.com/966/ https://xkcd.com/966/ For example, cultural appropriation (or cultural colonialism) versus blackface shaming. First you get somebody to agree about the problematic nature of cultural colonization. Then, you corner them to agree that blackface being problematic in your culture is an unnatural imposition of the U.S. culture into ours. For best results, you "prime" two people separately with each side of the argument, and throw them together in a party, while you drink beer.

stareatgoats 6y ago
Modern journalism and social networks in a nutshell. Wonder when the next big thing will be helping people to sort out their differences, instead of pitting folks against each other. Maybe the latter is what you do after you finished your beer and popcorn, but it wasn't quite clear in that case.
- enriquto 6y ago
  It's just my way of overturning insufferable arguments, there's not much depth to it.
krebs_liebhaber 6y ago
"You want to uproot the rich elite? What are you, some kind of anti-Semite?"
throwaway8582 6y ago
A better example would be: "Islam is right about women"

Swizec 6y ago

When we were middle school kids in Slovenia we used to have huge fights and “gang” beef over east side vs west side. We had no idea they were geographical, we just picked a side based on which rapper you liked. American culture is weird like that. We all consume it via mass media. I think it’s just an empire thing. During Victorian times everyone was trying to be a little British, or a little French, maybe a little German. Depends who’s closest to you. A long time ago, everyone tried to be a little Roman. Another way of putting it: News doesn’t tell you what to think, it tells you what to think about.

cvhashim 6y ago
> We had no idea they were geographical, we just picked a side based on which rapper you liked. No offense, I just find this hilarious for some reason. Kids can be so impressionable.
- Swizec 6y ago
  It’s even funnier when you realize that this was some 4 years into English classes for most of us and we could barely understand the lyrics.

dguest 6y ago

It's also possible that the US political system is aligning with the rest of the world. The American Republicans now seem a lot more authoritarian and the American Democrats more socialist than they were 10 years ago. I can't say if it aligns more with the divide in the rest of the world, but saying US politics "spills over" into the rest of the world makes it sound like the US is static. The parties are evolving though: maybe the US is just shifting to toward a more internationally palatable ideological divide.

Delk 6y ago
I can't speak of the political climates of the majority of the world, but at least in Europe multi-party systems aren't that uncommon, and those tend towards less of an ideological divide between the parties than the American bipartisan system, from what I've gathered. So I'm not sure I entirely understand what you mean with the divide being more internationally palatable. "Spilling over" also doesn't imply the source is static.

pelasaco 6y ago

Well, you definitely don't live in Leipzig. I can tell you that not everywhere in Germany is like that. In some cities, specially in the East, depending of the soccer team, profession or political views, you are simply not allowed to frequent some places.

technics256 6y ago
I'm American and Hispanic and been to leipzig and the surrounding areas quite often since my best friend lives there. I've partied and bbq'd in the various Dorfs surrounding as well and have never remotely encountered such a thing.
- pelasaco 6y ago
  I'm German and been to US many times. Some of my best friends lives there. I've partied and bbq'd in the various cities there and have never remotely encountered such thing like the one cited in the linked article. Do they exist? Definitely. What is your point?

krebs_liebhaber 6y ago

America is colonizing the rest of the developed world. There are probably at least a billion people worldwide (mostly in Europe, but also among Third-World elites) who act American and are invested in America's issues despite never having set foot in the country. The internet has exacerbated this greatly. Just look at the BLM protests in Poland and Japan... or the Amerikaner "digital nomads" who are able to live in foreign countries thanks to the Anglo Internet's worldwide penetration. https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/basic-concepts-1kyae https://paulskallas.substack.com/p/basic-concepts-1kyae

tartoran 6y ago
Somewhat true. I have friends and relatives in Eastern Europe heavily rooting for the Biden or Trump (usually the less educated or even uneducated) and yet they have no real stake in it but it’s as if they’re voting themselves. And I think they realized that America sets the tone so whoever gets the power will influence them too eventually.
- MagnumOpus 6y ago
  > yet they have no real stake in it Diplomatic relations with the US matter a lot for the economy and trade - as you've seen in many countries over the last four years. If you support an authoritarian/populist/homophobic ruler at home (in Poland or Hungary or Brazil or wherever), you also support Trump because he will support your country where a Biden administration will be far less likely to boost Hungary if it costs relationship points with Germany or France...
maneesh 6y ago
I don't understand the reference to digital nomads. How is it related? There are nomads from everywhere as well.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
burntoutfire 6y ago

mumblemumble 6y ago

> Does anyone else have similar stories? I'm seeing it, too, and it's annoying. I'm American, but a while back I stopped consuming anything but local news in English for the sake of my sanity. Doesn't work anymore. I keep wondering if maybe I just need to learn a new language? Maybe the mind virus hasn't yet spread to the Swahili coast. . .

skim_milk 6y ago

I'm at risk of sounding like I'm nitpicking, but I'm not following the popular narrative that it's a problem with America that spilled over into the rest of the world that's at the center of your story. Many people seem to agree that the rise of social media and its correlated loneliness have pushed people down their rabbithole/echo chamber/whatever people want to call it nowadays. Opposed to the popular narrative, the apparent view from people into the social sciences seem to believe it's a problem with social technologies, rather than it being the inferior North American cultures bleeding out and corrupting our pure untouched global cultures. I have to agree with the other view that all of us on this planet we are barely evolved hairless tribal monkeys using technology that makes us more anxious instead of secure - and all of these problems are actually pretty predictable from this perspective. It's not Americanification, we just naturally start acting like this when we start using things that make us anxious for clicks.

bergstromm466 6y ago
I think what we’re seeing has more to do with unaccountable invisible architectures (law/governance systems, IP and money) that obscure production processes, than that it’s anything to do with human nature or social media, or us being ‘hairless monkeys’.

seneca 6y ago

> The craziest part of this american culture war, to me, is that it seems to spill over to the rest of the world. It's more of a bidirectional soup, I think. A lot of the tumult in the US is due to the breakdown of historic norms and views. That has been sped up by social media, but the actual ideas taking hold on one side are largely Marxist, by way of the Frankfurt school, in nature. Those both originate within your own boarders. What you're experiencing is more an echo bouncing back than a spillover, in my opinion.

ck425 6y ago

One thing I've noticed is the whole sale importation of the BLM movement to the UK. I'm not overly aware of the issue facing ethnic minorities in the UK (I live in Scotland where it's almost entirely white with some small asian communities, which isn't to say there isn't racism just few people to discuss it with personally) but from reading around racism in the UK is very different to the US. Despite this we've adopted BLM views wholesale, including call to defund the police. I fully support discussing racism in the UK and what we can do to counter it but I don't get why we're discussing it as if it's the exact same situation over here with the same solutions. This might to a symptom of London centric-ness where there is far more ethnic diversity and therefore racism.

notriskfree 6y ago
I agree the UK is not the US and we have different issues in the UK that we are dealing with. Living and working near London I always assumed the increased ethnic diversity and global outlook in the capital led to less racism. I assumed it was the rural homogenous countryside that had more endemic racism. I guess we all misunderstand each other all the time.
- cmdshiftf4 6y ago
  >Living and working near London I always assumed the increased ethnic diversity and global outlook in the capital led to less racism. From https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.... >In the short run, however, immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. New evidence from the US suggests that in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods residents of all races tend to ‘hunker down’. Trust (even of one's own race) is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friends fewer. There's plenty of secondary sources reporting on this study if you want to have a look for the varying opinions on it but I thought I'd link the source of it itself. Whether less trust, less cohesion etc. == more racism is something I'm not in a position to draw a conclusion over, but it's interesting nonetheless.
  - 6y ago

unwabuisi 6y ago

America's biggest export is culture

dakna 6y ago

I think what we see here is the result of social media A/B testing on how to get votes, and this playbook is now followed by the rest of the world. In a democratic society, you have to influence the public opinion to stay/get in power. Propaganda is free, information costs money. If the majority of voters are not willing to pay for quality journalism, you have to get them engaged by fueling outrage and projecting fear. It doesn't matter what side, as long as there are sides you can join and identify with. Combined with the fact that American politics do have an effect on the quality of life in other parts of the world (trade wars and refugee crisis for example) and the working (aka non-capital) class suffers in most western societies, it is very easy to project similar fears and foster divisiveness.

themaninthedark 6y ago
Who says that paying for journalism would fix this problem? Both CNN and FOX are cable news, not broadcast for free. Go back to the start of the Second Gulf war and you had the NYT and other media outlets complicit in the WMD lies.
- dakna 6y ago
  It seems to work in other countries. Neither CNN nor Fox is quality journalism, "quality" being the adjective you left out. The NYT also issued an apology for their coverage about WMD which was not rigorously fact checked. One of the reporters, Judith Miller, later joined Fox News. Quality doesn't mean 100% correct all the time, it means significantly better than the alternative. Comparing the coverage of different sources is part of how you can reach your own conclusions, instead of blindly adopting whatever opinion is broadcasted to you.

alexpetralia 6y ago

Yes, similar to Schelling points, I call these Schelling fulcra. Not "what do people focus on?" but specifically "what issue illustrates our tribal divisions?"