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 genuinely think the source for this strife is that people are self sorting too much. People naturally tend to moderate when exposed to other perspectives. It’s just the exposure is too skewed towards social media and online/TV personalities and too little towards everyday fellow humans. Also why travel as a source for eliminating prejudice has reversed - too little actual genuine interpersonal contact. People will never learn how to talk about politics without rage unless they attempt it (and occasionally fail). It’s not much different than other social skills in that way.
I mean yes, I totally agree. But I notice that really the first bump of hyper-partisan politics seems to have started with the rise of cable news and the 24-hour news cycle. Before that, being a political junkie was hard work. You got an hour a day (local half hour and National half hour) of television news, a newspaper in the morning, and that was about it. Political talk radio was in its infancy, as was internet news. So if you wanted to closely follow politics, you’d have to buy in-depth news magazines and that had a time and money cost to it. Which made becoming too radical on either side of the equation a lot of work. You just couldn’t marinate in the stuff going on in Congress or what this or that political figure said.
I find, for myself, the more news I consume, the more political opinions mattered to me. Up to a point, awareness is good, and to the degree that an issue is actually important, you should be aware of it. But when news consumes you, you end up being pushed into radical thinking and anger and all the rest of it. It’s not a healthy way to live life. And I think slowing down and just doing much less thinking about politics is good for not just individuals but society in general. Most of the stuff people get mad about wouldn’t have made the news at all in 1982. What would you have heard about No Kings had it happened in 1982? You’d see a three minute story, maybe some random person saying something about “Trump isn’t a King”. You’d see another story about the military parades, maybe a couple of short “it’s good for the soldiers” statements by the brass, a brief clip of Trump clapping along to music or something. That would be it, on to other things. Maybe Iran and Israel get two minutes, as does Ukraine, and the shootings and manhunt in Minnesota. Weather and Sports. Not enough to feed on or radicalize on.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link