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 -
You do a lot of equivocation between social attitudes and government policy and discrimination against Hindus and discrimination against Brahmins, and it's not really clear to me which one you think is going on and which one each bullet is supposed to support.
True perhaps in a technical sense, but when the PM is inaugurating Hindu temples (and I'm not aware of him inaugurating mosques), I'm not sure it's really relevant.
Not only is India not the only nation with Hindus, it's not even the only Hindu majority nation.
The state-run religion is not usually considered to be oppressed. Also, can you explain how a "secular nation" can operate Hindu temples?
This doesn't indicate discrimination against Hindus at all.
The existence of a heckler's veto does not imply that the majority is being discriminated against. You can't have a Mohammed drawing competition in the US without people coming to kill you either, but it's ridiculous to claim that the US discriminates in favor of Muslims.
This is not evidence of discrimination against Hindus.
Which rights do Hindus lack?
Which places in India are exclusively, for example, Christian?
As far as I can tell the ban is only in places with terrible air quality? I don't see that as discrimination against Hindus. Do other religions get to perform celebrations that pollute the air to a similar extent?
What in particular do you find objectionable about it? I don't find it particularly likely that a bill sponsored and signed into law by the BJP is anti-Hindu.
How is a bill that was basically supposed to help everyone but Muslims evidence of discrimination against Hindus? That such a bill was even proposed is primary facie evidence that India discriminates against Muslims.
I would really prefer that you list the things that you think are the worst so that we can get to the bottom of this rather than a bunch of things that aren't really convincing and then go "but this isn't even my final form."
More options
Context Copy link