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’m very curious what the executive order for beautiful buildings will do. More specifically, the Promoting Beautiful Federal and Civic Architecture order.
The order is super vague, the meat being:
What do you think will practically change from this, if anything? Back to baroque? Neo-classical Roman columns??
What would your personal favorite style be?
On the one hand, you'd want public buildings to be agreeable to look at from the inside and outside. Possibly even as an architectural example.
On the other hand, you know that any such building project will be an extravagant waste of taxpayer money every step of the way.
So I have no favorite. Anything the state builds for its own sake and that of its servants will be a horrible insult to the people.
There are many government buildings in the USA that prove you wrong. Somewhere after WWII the US just said fuck it to the concept of building beautiful and on time and budget. But it doesn't seem to always have been so.
It seems to me that at least 40 of those are not eyesores.
https://knightlifenews.com/26954/opinion/spectacular-legislatures-all-50-state-capitol-buildings-ranked/
Well fair enough, I was thinking more of Germany. I should probably preface all my posts with "Meanwhile, in the land of the Germans...". And our best and most beautiful buildings are usually survivors from the late middle ages, or baroque, and you can't exactly build that way anymore. Our immediately-post-war architecture is offensively ugly and our later buildings are so expensive that it makes you wonder how they could achieve such price tags without making the roofs out of solid gold.
Looking at those, they are all somewhat pompous. Maybe that's appropriate though? Not that ours are any better, mind you. The predominant style there just doesn't appeal much to me personally.
I would love to see some nice brick (or brick-faced) buildings, but right now everyone building stuff out of brick follows the Rittersport mantra. I guess fancy brickwork is out of reach for modern masons, who only learn to lay horizontal rows and vertical walls.
The URL hit me like a ton of bricks.
Don't tell me you had to use their services.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link