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 mean that we can agree that we have different meanings of what is considered a cripple. It's partly subjective how people decide what word means what, so I don't see what else we can gain from continuing this discussion. Also, what different people consider "basic to human functioning" would also be different and subjective to an extent. If it was less subjective, then I would have continued the discussion, but as of now I think I have a good understanding of your viewpoint and am unlikely to gain much more insight with additional discussion that would change my viewpoint.
Yeah, this is why I said we can agree to disagree. What different people value and how much they value something is fundamentally subjective. I also think seeing color is better than being colorblind, but I think having sexual desire is mostly a net neutral. I still don't think that seeing color, hearing sound, or having an arm is important enough that I would include them in a set of things that are the most important in life, or fundamental to the human experience. They are good to haves, and not having them would make you disabled because that's what disabled means. I can see why you would consider asexuality a disability if experiencing sexuality is so important to you, but it's not that important to me so plus I don't think it restricts people from participating in society or provides severe hinderances to living their life in a way that I would say is necessary for something to be considered a disability.
I mainly wanted to know your viewpoint on if you also view people who forego sexuality as disabled, because I like poking at potential sources of cognitive dissonance like that. We can continue the discussion if you still want to know more from me though, I would be happy to do that.
More options
Context Copy link