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 -
Anything can seem like a good idea at the time if you're a fool. There are videos of men sticking their hand into a lion cage, clearly they thought it was a good idea at the time.
Instead of fighting a war on drugs and losing, why not win instead? It really isn't that hard to find the drug dealers and get rid of them. If the demented drug zombies can find the drug dealers, so can well-trained and organized police. People often raise civil liberties as a defence here - civil liberties disappear anywhere near an airport, where a giant, expensive and ineffective protection theatre reigns. If the TSA can feel up or browse through the genitals of the general public, surely the police can whisk away the drug dealers and break up distribution networks. America wasn't an unfree police state back when the crazies were locked up in mental institutions.
China policy was taking a huge and unnecessary risk relying on a dubious and unproven idea. Since when has capitalism induced democracy in a large Asian dictatorship? It didn't happen in Japan, capitalist democracy transformed into a military dictatorship aiming for regional hegemony. It kind of happened in South Korea and Taiwan - small US allies. But China is a big, nuclear powered US adversary. They fought against America in the Korean War and Vietnam. They famously conducted a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy students in 1989. They had another Taiwan Straits crisis in the 1990s. I can't imagine why anyone thought they were going to turn into a democracy and this would solve all the US problems faced. Even if they became a democracy they could still be rabidly nationalistic and throw their weight around.
It was total delusion. Nobody should ever need to learn not to stick their hand into a lion cage.
More options
Context Copy link