site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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.

13
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Sure, the state intervenes, but not easily. There's thousands of lawyers around the country who work at getting Social Security Disability Benefits for their clients. I've worked on those kinds of cases before. It is not as easy as you think to just reach out your hand and get a handout. There's a whole corpus of law and expertise devoted to determining what jobs a person is able to hold, and whether those jobs can make the necessary adjustments to allow the individual to work there, and if those jobs are available. Can this individual carry 50lbs? 15lbs? 5lbs? Can they walk a mile, a thousand yards, a hundred yards? How long can they sit/stand/walk before needing a break? How many days a week would they be unable to work? The government can dig into every aspect of your life at a hearing to determine if you'll get anything out of them, and half the time a lawsuit results. If there is any job you can do, you aren't getting disability benefits. If you lose your arm and can't work as a welder, you don't get money, you get told to go get a job manning the booth at a parking garage.

Which brings us back to our friends the incels. This is the debate we have over Incel vs Volcel, whether most incels could get laid if they wanted to fuck ugly women, or if they washed their hair, or whatever. The government, or society, has every right to interrogate if you are doing enough before giving you help.