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 -
Longtermism has never been a long term policy of a corporation, nation, or even family. Unless there’s something that boosts quarterly profits, it’s not happening.
The "businesses only care about quarterly profits" crowd don't seem to have ever talked to a business owner/founder/competent CEO/mid tier+ chairman.
It's a meme that only lives in the minds of those critical of business or stock markets.
Saying that a country has never been longterm-pilled is actually even more egregious. And I don't know how hard you're redefining things or playing word games to say families don't take a long term view of life. I certainly do, so does almost everybody I know.
Post a definition of what you mean by "longtermism" and I'll post 20,000 examples to demonstrate that there are businesses, countries and families that have all had a long term visions of the future, and have worked towards them. Short of you saying "longterm" actually means "2,000 years" this seems like a totally indefensible comment. And if your view od short term is "quarterly reporting" then I'm going to suggest longterm should be in the range of 10 to 20 years.
The quarterly profits comment was a bit tongue in cheek. I am talking about 2000+ years because that’s what this existential risk planning entails. There are arguably only 2 countries (Japan and China) that have been around culturally that long, 1 institution (the Catholic Church), and as far as I know no corporations.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link