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 -
Long story short
My dad was a military electrician driving around the Independent Southern part of a European country famous for its north-south religious divide, as a member of the military forces of their Eastern neighbor. Said Eastern Neighbor had somewhat-condoned listening posts inside the Southern country, and my dad was essentially maintaining those driving around in an unmarked van.
One night he stops in at one concealed in a rural barn and stays for the night, then wakes up at 2AM since he needs to go to the toilet. He leaves the barn and goes into the nearby woods to shit, and in the meantime a small group of locals come up on the guys inside the barn and have them at gunpoint. My dad sneaks back from the woods, grabs the nearest weapon (which was the hunting rifle of the commanding officer of the listening post and filled with hollow point rounds) and then opens fire on the locals after they open fire on the guys inside the barn. He ends up being the only survivor, and once the military police descended on the situation it turned into a huge clusterfuck.
My dad was accused of opening fire/shooting the locals in the back (despite the fact that they clearly fired on the guys inside the post since they're also dead), and of breaking the Geneva Convention due to using hollowpoint rounds (since he'd literally just grabbed the nearest weapon which wasn't his/loaded by him) plus there's a ton of ugly diplomacy around the location and status of this particular incident since it's not inside the country in which this particular police action was supposed to be taking place. He then spends a month or two getting grilled, before eventually being discharged on goodish terms and the court martial not sticking but there was an attempt.
More options
Context Copy link