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 -
Sure, let's throw that in to the consumption number.
That brings us to 46% for China and 65% for the US based on the numbers above, once we apply the increase from the text you quoted. Still, the gap is fairly significant.
Yes, there is a big gap. But why does the gap to the US matter at all? You both have abnormal societies.. China is an outlier in its GDP bracket, you are an outlier in yours. Chinese household consumption is similar to its East Asian neighbors. We can quibble about specific datasets, but South Korea is under 50% pretty much no matter how one looks at it. Why is Indian or American ratio inherently better than Chinese or Swiss ratio? This is all a pretty facile discussion, different nations have different systems, your main problem with their system is that it's too internationally competitive, not that Chinese people are poor (and they aren't even that poor).
I don't even have a "problem" with their system in the context of this conversation, and it seems a bit facile to resort to accusations like that when we're discussing a narrow empirical question about Chinese consumption as a fraction of GDP which you were the one to dispute.
@aquota said it's 40%, you said that's bullshit propaganda and provided a paywalled source to support that which, it turns out, suggests the true number is 46%.
Now you're saying that 40%-50% is perfectly normal, actually. Well, maybe, but then why call the original claim imperial propaganda when it's pretty close to correct?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link