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 -
I thought I saw data that half time viewership fell significantly versus the game but yes it was not the most watched. It’s not all Bad Bunny’s fault because the game was dreadful. It both lacked star power and was just not good football. I started playing on my phone by the second quarter.
One thing I’ve been playing with is whether the promotion of Bad Bunny is essentially “leftist are the real racists” evidence. I think the show was promotion Third Worldism and not just Latino culture. In very much the same way when Algebra becomes racists. Or the SAT. In the ‘90s the left and the right had differences but both sides actually believed things like affirmative action could fix things, yelling about black families, rap culture value promotion, etc were important parts of diversity. It was believed that with some assimilation pressure we could all be equal.
The right is probably more explicitly racists and willing to say things like don’t like browns or worse Haitians in because they are too dumb to be Americans. The left though I think believes the same things. A non-racists left would say things like diversity is our strength but also be against oversexualization of brown women. I don’t believe their is a belief on the left that the imported people can assimilate to all the cultural traits most would agree make a good society.
More options
Context Copy link