site banner

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.

Hi guys, I wrote the part II to the first story I posted 3 weeks ago.

I think moving together is an interesting action. Basically what it means is that you are roped to your partner on perhaps easy but massively exposed terrain. Easy in this sense is usually also very relative to the ability level of the pair. It means that due to a lack of protection between you if one of the pair falls, you both fall. So you have to have ultimate trust in your partners ability. Indeed, just on Sunday I was talking to a mountain guide which told me about a fall on Aiguille du Peigne, while a rope team was moving together.

You often don't see ultimate trust in the modern world invested in to a comrade, perhaps outside actual warfare. This is part of the reason why I think Alpine climbing is basically a substitute of this for the modern man. You go in to dangerous places, to do risky things, you don't bring back cattle or women or anything useful for that matter. But perhaps, you show that you could, if the times were different. You seek the same valor and the status that comes with this. Which is why a lot of climbers look down on people using guides, they see it as stolen valor. The first Englishman, Charles Hudson who went up Mont Blanc wrote a book in 1856 titled 'Where There's a Will There's a Way: An Ascent of Mont Blanc by a New Route and Without Guides' which was the first written articulation of this sentiment.

I think the psychology of this sort of adventure seeking has much more to explore. But I haven't yet delved in to it too much yet.

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

0

Let's chat about the National Football League. This week's schedule (all times Eastern):

Thu 2024-10-10 8:15PM San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks
Sun 2024-10-13 9:30AM Jacksonville Jaguars @ Chicago Bears
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Cleveland Browns @ Philadelphia Eagles
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Arizona Cardinals @ Green Bay Packers
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Houston Texans @ New England Patriots
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints
Sun 2024-10-13 1:00PM Washington Commanders @ Baltimore Ravens
Sun 2024-10-13 4:05PM Pittsburgh Steelers @ Las Vegas Raiders
Sun 2024-10-13 4:05PM Los Angeles Chargers @ Denver Broncos
Sun 2024-10-13 4:25PM Atlanta Falcons @ Carolina Panthers
Sun 2024-10-13 4:25PM Detroit Lions @ Dallas Cowboys
Sun 2024-10-13 8:20PM Cincinnati Bengals @ New York Giants
Mon 2024-10-14 8:15PM Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets

1

This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service.

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.