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 -
If we actually care about innocent people dying, then no, we shouldn't care any more about someone that dies at the hands of ICE, than someone that died from some criminal the Democrats let out on the streets. And there are VASTLY more people that die from those Democrat causes, than at the hands of ICE.
If the left actually cared about innocent people dying, their crime and immigration policies would be vastly different. But from what I can tell, their focus is mostly on making life easier for convicted criminals, and known illegal immigrants.
Most members of the public do this, actually. Most people don't care that much if some gang member is killed by some other gang member. They care a lot more if some innocent child dies. This is perfectly logical and normal.
I'm not saying the people that confront ICE are bad people (though I think that they are misguided). I am mostly noting that someone that gets in a confrontation with a member of law enforcement wielding a weapon is knowingly taking on a big risk. They are not 100% innocent in the situation, like Iryna Zarutska and other victims were.
And since members of ICE are humans, and all humans make occasional mistakes, these incidents will keep happening as long as the left goads on enough people into getting into confrontations with LEO.
This is a major part of why the left is so incredibly complicit in these deaths. It isn't just that the left deliberately imported millions of illegal immigrants and forced the voters to elect Republicans to clean up their mess, it's the fact that they keep goading suggestible people into confronting ICE. These incidents will keep happening as long as the left keeps doing that.
Can ICE policies be improved? Sure. But it's actually a lot harder to perfect that side of the equation, than for the left to stop creating these problems and confrontations in the first place.
What I'm proposing would be massively beneficial to conservatives, and SCOTUS does lean conservative.
BTW, I'm not suggesting at all that corporations should be forced to make ANY specific changes to their speech. I am only suggesting that corporations should be forced to engage in fair hiring practices, and then expect that as the personnel changes, the speech will likely change, too, once conservatives finally get a fair shot in the workplace in the media, academia, and government.
I am an American, and I feel deep sorrow at once-astonishing Europe's slow slide into irrelevancy, so I will probably stay here.
Amusing :). I'm sure Fox News would be completely happy with that outcome, though, and so would most conservatives, to see liberals finally get more exposure to conservative viewpoints. (Studies show that liberals are generally much more ignorant of conservative media and viewpoints, than the reverse.)
The audience for traditional media is still absolutely vast. And all "new media" would also be included. And in some cases it would help to protect the left!
More options
Context Copy link