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 -
The left finally learned how to meme I guess. Is this the source of the latest round? All I hear is it being spun as "Trump mad that Epstein was stealing
underage sex workersteenage employees from his resort" With lots of dark hinting about why Trump would hire teenagers in the first place. Fucking pervert.And I'm sitting here, feeling the class divide between reporters and everyone else more starkly than ever. I think it was Matt Taibbi who was talking about how reporters used to be a blue collar profession, but they've been increasingly infiltrated and gentrified by ivy league grads. And if this has any validity at all, it comes out here. The people reporting on this are a class of human being with no concept of a highschool summer job. That's what illegals are for. The idea that teenagers are in the service industry is on the face of it suspicious to them. Or that teenage girls (attractive ones to boot) would be in "front of house" positions. I was going to say something like "Has the world really changed that much since I was a teenager?" except all this shit would have happened when I was a teenager so I feel I can speak on it with more authority.
Ah well, I guess you had to be there. A shame these people get to write the first draft of history.
More options
Context Copy link