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 -
Yes, which is why the reaction to Charlie Kirk's assassination was so demoralizing for people.
The left really does want me dead because they think I'm bad, and they aren't shy about it.
I can't imagine it going anywhere good, but I also can't imagine continuing to cooperate when everyone else is so obviously defecting.
This is the most extreme kind of political thinking that I’ve seen
You should not treat your political opponents as a homogenous group made of their most distasteful members
This (quite common) cognitive mistake becomes particularly egregious when the conclusion is: they all want to kill me
You should recognize when thoughts, positions, attitudes or memes become sufficiently widespread within a group to be normalized, such that it starts showing up in your day-to-day interactions.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I honestly don't understand what people are talking about here. As I said elsewhere in this thread:
I remember talking to my dad after Trump was shot. I thought it was insane that it was relatively quiet, that it wasn't a huge fucking deal that everyone was talking about.
His explanation? Not many people will say it, but the quiet ones wished the bullet struck true, him included.
Kirk was worse, most people took his death as a chance to shit on him as a person, to decry his work, and to remind everyone that he was racist, sexist, transphobic, and whatever other epithet du jour could stick.
Yeah, they want me dead, they want my leaders assassinated in public, they want my son to be a girl and they'll kidnap him if I resist, and by the way, I can't own weapons that might dissuade the government form overreach, since they've taken those away, too.
Oh, and in the meantime, they're also telling me I'm evil because of my race while importing foreigners who hate me, also for my race, with the intention of manufacturing a demographic advantage out of voter fraud and anchor babies.
Democrats need to stop being so uniformly evil if you want me to stop treating them as uniformly evil.
More options
Context Copy link
Maybe amongs the higher ups and the normies. There was a hell of a lot of celebration (and "not celebrating, just selectively re-quoting the man in a way that makes him look maximally negative to my in-group") on social media. Certainly gives the impression that whatever may be said by others, there's a large and vocal contingent out there.
Of course, those people would say the exact same about the other side, and have plenty of nutpicking of their own to support their stance of "the other side wants us dead".
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link