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 agree with all of your statements! To be a bit more nuanced, I certainly think strength/flexibility/mobility training is an important component of this, and helped me quite a bit. Perhaps to put it another way even though I spent 10+ years learning various types of strength training regimens and fitness programs, I never found a method that focused enough on the general idea of for instance, "when doing a crunch, make sure to relax your head/jaw/neck etc." Yoga was the first method that actually taught me to do that, eventually, after years of semi-regular practice and six months of daily practice.
I also made huge breakthroughs right after quitting a high stress job so I now think stress was an important factor in many of my physical issues. To be clear I don't believe in Sarno's stuff though I have read through it. I briefly used the Curable app, which is much more nuanced and focuses on body scan meditations and other ways to hone your awareness of your muscles.
Could you give an example of "And most woo-seeming things that work don't work for the reasons people think they do?" I find this topic very interesting.
As an aside, I'm very excited for the new site! The move was a good enough reason to motivate me to post this though I've been thinking about it for months. Thanks for your positivity and hope for this place, your comments were useful in convincing me to join.
Therapy/psychonalysis where you "get rid of negative thought patterns / childhood trauma / latent oedipal desire / condition your lizard mind / remove tensions between different sub-parts of your mind", but the practical outcome is just "the therapist becoming your friend / socially pressuring you to do the thing", with the explanation mostly serving as a distracting trick (although one all parties sincerely believe!). Meditation on chakras, even though the physical location of the chakra is basically random and it'd work if the chakra was just a vague concept instead of having a location. Spiritual claims about specific yoga poses. "The secret", the whole "visualize a thing and it'll come", when "visualize it" is either a "if you look for something you'll see it" trick or a way to get people to try just a little bit to actually accomplish it. These are all very different things, and are only all 'woo' in a broad sense, but there's a similarity!
So do you think the best way to avoid a lot of stress/chronic pain is having a stronger social net and not consciously doing the wrong thing?
I think I can agree with that basic concept, but the problem seems to lie in communicating what exactly is the right thing, how you figure out what you believe the right thing is, etc. This is notoriously difficult to communicate which is why so many specialized and esoteric systems have developed to attempt it.
What would you suggest as an alternative way to help rid people of 'negative thought patterns' etc?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link