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 -
Nobody I know in the U.S. gets 2 weeks off in August. Two weeks around Christmas, IF you're lucky. (I am not lucky.)
You don't get a week for Labor Day? What about two weeks paid vacation?
Well, it’s not called Labor Week…
More options
Context Copy link
A WEEK??? Lmao. We get one day. What are you talking about?
Pretty much everywhere I've ever worked outside of California has treated Labor-Day as a 4 - 5 day weekend, EG Thursday or Friday through Monday and most people who have flexible PTO will take the rest of the preceding week off to give themselves an uninterrupted 10 days off.
Similar dynamic to that around Thanksgiving. If you know you're going to get Thursday and Friday "for free", you might as well spend some of your PTO to not come in Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and make a week of it.
Sounds nice. It’s just one day in the US.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Nobody gets 2 weeks off specifically in August, but even new hires typically get 10 days of paid vacation, as counted separate from paid sick leave, per year; total PTO for all working Americans averages around 24 days per year. That includes Christmas vacation time, but pending a big chunk of the remainder for a summer vacation (though more often July than August) is pretty popular.
On the other hand, we don't use all our leave. The majority of Americans report unused PTO days in any given year, an average of 6+ per person. That kind of resonates with that commercial, as well as with my own experiences. I got a nice check for unused vacation days when leaving my last job, and these days my vacation planning is constrained by a rule preventing me from rolling over more than some maximum (7 weeks?) of leave days from year to year, so I end up "burning" some on 3-day weekends when I can't drop work for a week or more at a time.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link