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 -
While this may or may not have reflected the views of the general Chinese populace, Chinese anthropologists were some of the OG chuds when it comes to human evolution.
Prior to the 2010-or-so confirmation of Neanderthal DNA admixture into modern humans, Western anthropologists insisted upon an "Out-of-Africa," late separation date for forming the approximate ancestral background of the main modern human populations. In contrast, Chinese anthropologists maintained a multiregional (earlier forms of Homo evolved into modern humans in their respective regions), early separation date for forming the approximate ancestral background of the main modern human populations.
Western anthropologists and other racial egalitarians and blank-slatists used the "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis to pound-the-table in forming a "We are all Africans" hugboxy-type consensus to pwn the racists. The discovery and subsequent confirmations of Neanderthal and other archaic admixture into humans suggested that the majority of modern human DNA is indeed that of "Out-of-Africa," but the previous smugness and sanctimony of Western racial egalitarians and blank-slatists in committing to "We are all Africans" made the discovery and confirmations feel like a crushing defeat for them and a resounding victory for the Chinese Chuds.
As such, the whole Western commitment to "We are all Africans" has largely been memory-holed.
I have a sneaking suspicion some of the reasoning behind the Chinese anthropologists was (1) fitting in with the local political theories of 'China has always been at its best when pure and free of meddling foreign influence which brought us to misery' and (2) good old racism: 'no we are not descendants of those monkey-people in that continent!' and (3) 'see, China has always been to the forefront of civilisational advance, we have our own local evolutionary pathways to modern humans!'
I could well be mistaken here, though.
Aren't the ancient north eurasians literally the ancestors of every civilized race and also pretty close to China?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I've been trying to find a nice take down of "out of Africa" I placed into my notes. It was basically just an argument that Africans and everyone else are quite divergent evolutionarily.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link