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've noticed a trend lately where TLC's on the culture war roundup are increasingly dominated by Indian issues and things that only Indians would be concerned about, and it’s becoming hard to ignore. I don't believe it's malevolent for Indian users to bring up topics relevant to their country, however there’s a real risk that the entire site starts to tilt toward Indian concerns, removing what was once sacred about this place. (Sheer volume notwithstanding)
As a user: Culture War is not unique to America. We welcome contributions from other countries, and have had a number of long-running contributions from England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, the Nordic countries, etc. I see no reason why Indian concerns should not be welcome here, nor any benefit to concerns about rate or volume of contributions by nation of origin generally.
The OP in particular seems directly relevant to both sides of the general debate over Feminism as an ideology. It seems obvious to me that the situation they're describing arrived through attempts to solve valid, legible problems identified by feminism, and is a demonstration of how Feminist solutions aren't sufficient in and of themselves.
To steelman: There's an argument, and a pretty solid one, that SJ is mostly the same across US/England/Ireland/Canada/Australia/NZ/France/Germany/Scandinavia (as a product of its online emergence) - there's a lot of variation in the strength and some variation in the type of movements opposing SJ, but the issues are mostly the same. My understanding is that while there is some cross-pollination, India's culture wars are substantially different.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link