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 -
To teach (1) and particularly (2) you have to know they are worth studying. I get the impression Aella was basically all 4 to begin with from where she decided to capitalise on an unplanned opportunity. All the hard work was done for her by happenstance (be attractive, be nerdy, live somewhere where horny nerds have buckets of disposable income, plus be a community of strident norms decouplers) and she just had to stoop and bend over in order to pick up the $3k bills that were lying in her lap.
How confident would you (or Aella) be that you could recreate her results if we crossed off the SF tech bro world that you already understand? What about sports bros, aristocracy bros, oil bros, government bros, etc? What about when that audience is averse to someone who is as indiscreet as Aella?
I think a lot of the women who are (3) and (4) play the same strategy as people on dating sites by trying to appeal to everyone and in doing so fail to distinguish themselves. They're trawler fishing in their crowded local bay instead of venturing out into deep water with a harpoon. If they tried to hunt for men in SF they'd probably think the place to find rich clients was in the shopping'n'restaurants district, not in the comments section of a blog arguing about the geopolitical importance of Taiwan or whatever.
More options
Context Copy link