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 don't think you even need confusion on the part of the author, there – from what I understand manuscripts at the time were not necessarily always good at section breaks (chapters and verses were a more recent innovation) and text might not fully capture clarifying content that would be found in conversation. We read it as one long answer to three questions, but it seems possible to me that it person it might have been more clear which question was being addressed at which time.
You can even see how this might work on a skim – something like 1 - 25 are direct actionable pieces of advice for the Apostles concerning the near future, 26 - 31 is a contrast to 1 - 25, and the subsequent parable of the fig tree is referring to the things that they would experience and that did happen at the time with 26 - 31 not being referred to in this parable because it was a digression. That might be clearer in an in-person conversation than it would be written down. (I'm not particularly attached to this reading and haven't dug into it at all, so there might be slam-dunk reasons it is wrong, I'm just using it as an example of how the text might not capture what was and wasn't a digression.)
You also see double meanings fairly often in Scripture, where one event typifies or resembles another. (This reminds me of Isaiah's prophecy against the king of Babylon, which goes on to talk about a far greater power).
More options
Context Copy link