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 would argue that before Tesla, an electrical car was for the greenest 10% of the population who were willing to drive an expensive substandard car because they wanted to stop CO2 emissions. Rich people who wanted a nice car typically got a premium brand German gasoline car.
Tesla changed that. Suddenly you could drive a car which would impress the ladies while also being electric. In response, the German car industry (which had largely dismissed electric cars as a fad) worked hard to build electric models. While I would probably by a SE Asian car instead of an American or European one, I really think that Tesla moved the industry forward a lot.
Often, the premium brands are trendsetters, and the things they implement (e.g. ABS, airbags, backwards-facing cameras) eventually trickle down to the cheaper brands. Before Tesla, you could belittle that die-hard green running an extension cord through his garden to charge his car. After Tesla, it was clear that electric cars were a viable (if still expensive) alternative.
The main innovation of SpaceX is that they are able to recycle first stages. The Saturn V was very impressive on capabilities, but it also cost about 1.5G$ per launch in today's money to get 140 tons to LEO. The Falcon 9 costs 67M$ for 23 tons to LEO. Sure, SpaceX is overpromising and underdelivering a lot, but that fact alone is impressive.
More options
Context Copy link