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 -
You could go with the pre-2013 definition for classic autism. That’s the year in which it was merged with Asperger’s and some other developmental disorders. I don’t know that the establishment was wrong to combine them into a “spectrum disorder,” but it certainly changed the calculus for self-diagnosis.
It’s worth mentioning that the uptick in diagnoses was not, AFAICT, limited to photogenic “nerd++” autism. It also includes the 25-30% of cases which were classed as intellectually disabled. I find it much less likely that growth in this category is driven by self-diagnosis.
I mean, we kind of do? At least to the same degree as ASD. No one can actually stop you from citing “anger issues” any more than they can gatekeep “depression” or “anxiety.” They have to rely on social cues to warn you if you’re about to be cringe.
Consider whether one particular cluster of personality traits might be less likely to take those hints.
I was curious about this the other day since discussing increasing autism rates seems entirely pointless without distinguishing between non-functional autism and “nerd++” autism so I asked ChatGPT whether there’s research showing an increase in non-functional autism. It led me to this paper https://autismsciencefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CDC-Profound-Autism-Statistics_ASF-Copy.pdf which shows that rates of non-functional “profound” autism have been increasing, albeit at a slower rate than ASD generally. This is somewhat convincing that there is something real about increasing rates of autism but could also still be an artifact of more people seeking diagnosis. The one thing that stuck out that makes me think the whole “increased autism” thing is probably fake though is that prevalence of “profound” autism in black children is almost double what it is for white children. My thought is it’s all just Goodhart-ing by school districts to get more special education funding and create more excuses for problematic/low-performing students.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link