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 -
Some day, this 2016 election is going to end.
It's comforting to believe that this is an unnatural state of affairs, but what the internet did is not make people crazy, but show them how much of a fraud the world they lived in is. Much of the things we now bemoan about the neoliberal consensus were already there in the 90s and the 00s, you just couldn't possibly know about them or get to care about them.
Kojima is often rightfully credited for shining a light of what ultimately was predicted by contemporary philosophers in MGS2: the interconnection and sheer quantity of information makes shared context impossible, which means that hard power reasserts itself as the only means of enforcement. And thus we go along the road of violence and conflict, because there is no possible way to negotiate between peoples that operate by mutually incomprehensible memes.
However, this is not unnatural, people have had many irreconcilable differences and assorted conflict in the past, it is simply History telling Fukuyama "We're done when I say we're done."
What broke isn't the psyche of people, but the unity of the unipolar American Empire, as its myths could no longer be sustained in the face of its contradictions. And insofar as much (though not all) of those myths are deathly lies, that's a good thing.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
It specifically made them think the world they currently live in is a fraud much more than ever before. The Right takes this to mean we must RETVRN to the 1950's (when we didn't notice the fraud) while the Left takes it to mean insane purity-spiral wokeism is the only cure.
More options
Context Copy link
This is the most chillingly beautiful phrase I've read this week.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link