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 -
Modern western culture values the state of childish innocence, naive happiness and unbounded creativity of the uneducated mind very highly. Prolonging this state as much as possible is the number one duty of good parents and caretakers. Meanwhile it views trauma as something extremely damaging that persists through life and cripples a person.
It follows quite simply from these basic principles that adults should be kept away from children as much as possible and when it is inevitable to have them near each other, the adult should be closely monitored and audited. After all, at best, the adult will spoil the childish state of bliss, and at worst, they will inflict trauma.
This is quite an inhuman and unusual state of affairs of course. Almost every other modern or premodern society has certain implicit expectations or explicit traditions regarding children being introduced to various adult things as early as possible. Children crave this sort of thing (label anything as “adult” and teenagers will go out of their way to check it out) and many adults get real satisfaction from interacting with children and mentoring them.
Because it’s such a basic human need for both adults and kids, they will exploit any openings in the culture to create bonds with each other. Right now the LGBT ideology and feminism present just such an opportunity. While it’s normally considered creepy to talk about sexual topics with children without being exaggeratedly scientific and impersonal, it’s perfectly normal and encouraged to do so in the framework of LGBT youth, or getting into a mentorship arrangement to create new generation girl bosses or minority leaders.
Western conservatives are absolutely failing to satisfy this basic need and all they can do is to point fingers at some exploitative actors of the opposing side and call them names. It’s pathetic.
Is it any wonder that they are when western progressives actively tore down all the institutions that traditionally satisfied them?
Perhaps. But what you are describing is simply losing and being a loser is pathetic
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link