site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 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.

12
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

"no, u mad" followed by 1.6 thousand words are quite good evidence I hit my mark and a nerve.

Millstone.

I realize it may be pointless to reply while you're banned, but I have to ask what the heck "millstone" is supposed to refer to, because you've used it here the same way 4Channers say "dilate" to transwomen.

Matthew 18:6 or Mark 9:42 or Luke 17:2, which each say about the same thing. Paraphrasing, "better to tie a millstone around your neck, and be cast into the deepest sea, than to lead a child into sin." In context, it's not specific to pedophilia, more of a general injunction against corrupting innocence in children, but pedophilia is generally considered the extreme case of a violation against this stricture.

Huh. I'd picked up that it was a "kill yourself", but I didn't notice the Bible reference. Thanks.

Do not be deliberately antagonistic, this was right after another mod warning. 5 day ban.

You accused me of being indirect about my beliefs, I explained them in great detail (certainly not because you "struck a nerve" as in fact I've had this all on the tip of my digital tongue for a while and you gave me a good excuse to let it all out, though you obviously aren't worthy of its debut), and your response is nothing more than mindless, simplistic Reddit-style snark. Unless you wish to reform your behavior in a less (cattily and frivolously, not even embodying their occasional virtues) feminine direction, this is the part where I dismiss you as a man and move on. You may have permission to address me again as a fellow man (assuming you identify as one) when you have developed a proper intellectual backbone.

Edit:

His original post was:

Struck a nerve, huh?

Millstone

His latest edit is obviously a response to a suggestion of the opposite. In any case:

@PossibleAstronaut has blocked you!

I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine whose nerve has thus been struck. Hopefully if anybody sees it some will enjoy my response to him regardless, as its length is a reflection of my desire to communicate the material, not to address such a generically discontented individual (who I've naturally encountered some close variation of probably hundreds of times prior).

As I ironically enough mentioned in my initial response to him:

your [...] is just to me included in that realm of "degeneracy", on the same level and part of the same phenomenon as the general intolerable feminization of men and society.

Cattiness, passive aggressiveness, and an incapability of enduring direct challenge without ragequitting (and of course inevitably doing a modern faux-indifferent/casual "But I'm not mad! I'm not owned! You are!" routine along the way) are all of course included in this. I think I hit the nail on the head.

Edit 2:

@PossibleAstronaut has unblocked you!

And shall we add irresoluteness and indecision? As they say: "lmao."