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 -
This view seems to me to be lacking in nuance. Sure, someone may hate Olmecs, thinking that the nature of their existence is an affront to Vedist principles, but who's to say that they won't only be explicitly driven towards violence against Olmecs after they become firmly convinced that Olmecs are going after Vedist children?
(Or who is to say that they couldn't only decide that they really hate Olmecs at all after they come to think that the Olmecs are going after Vedist children? Modern people are very sensitive about (their) children in these days of advanced medical technology and lowered child mortality. Modern people are also pretty tolerant and "Live and let live, just leave me alone about it."-adhering otherwise.)
I feel like there were/are a lot of people who were/would have been supporters of lesser homosexual creeds such as "Let them do what they want in their own bedrooms.", "Let them do what they want between consenting adults.", "Sure, pride is great, and if people don't want to see grown bears twerking on a Bank of America float they can go somewhere else for the day.", etc. who nevertheless drew the line somewhere around Drag Queen Story Hour, and, as the old poem goes, began to hate. I don't know how many, but surely it's at least one.
I would say this needs a heavy dose of justification. To me it seems like the radicalization that leads to mass murder attacks is highly context-dependent, but I guess I could be wrong about that.
More options
Context Copy link