site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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.

23
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Not really. Both are in favor of smaller, lighter cars which burn less gas not by virtue of complicated technical tricks but by being small cars with small engines.

If the general class of driver's license only covers up to 200 horsepower, that will stop a lot of soccer mom's from driving Expeditions they can't park properly. You can drive a full size pickup with 180 horsepower, but slowly, most people won't choose to do it. So the only people driving big cars will be those who need them or really love them, eliminating most users who can't drive them well.

Enthusiasts buying sports cars would happily take an extra month of classes and a harder test, hell throw in a track handling test.

Take out big cars and sports cars, and no one needs more than 200 horsepower anyway, and with smaller engines they'll get better gas mileage. 200hp in an Avalon or an Explorer can handle just fine on the highway, just a little slower.

Oh, you just want smaller cars by any means necessary, even if those means are government-enforced. I thought your "safety standards are fascism" remark was meant to indicate anti-government sentiment.

If we're going to have government regulations, and we are, I just want them to be actually helpful and not actively harmful. I don't think that's too much to ask.