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 think we have a misunderstanding in terms here. I don't think I was very clear.
I don't really care if Ezra or the PSA guys or any particular Dem personally did or advocated for this or that. In their work, they refer to Democrats/Liberals/#Resistance/People of Good Will/Etc. types under the rubric of "We." What will we do? What should we make of this?
In the same way that a Cowboys fan speaks of we. We beat the Eagles, what a thrill. We lost to the Bears, this is embarrassing for us.
It's not particularly important which person did what. It's important to take a look at the process and how Democrats got here. If one is a Democrat, that's a we issue. That's something you have to figure out how you avoid next time.
I don't want to get into the weeds here, but you're doing the same thing I'm accusing them of here: you're starting the clock very late in the day. The endorsements poured into Biden well before Super Tuesday, the election might have gone very differently if they hadn't done so. We might have gotten to a different outcome. We can argue about coordination versus a sort of stochastic chance and follow the leader, but what we can't do is start with a fait accompli, start the story in medias res and say "Ok what should we do right now?" without ever discussing all the past prologue that got us here. That's a recipe for repeating one's mistakes.
More options
Context Copy link