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 agree that the reddit of 2010 bore very little resemblance to what exists now. That the free speech ideals of its origins were still somewhat visible in the culture of the site. But at the same time, the cracks were starting to show. You mentioned a bunch of fringe subs that ultimately got banned. But if you want a story that better parallels the evolution of reddit as a whole, the (then) fringe sub to look at would be /r/SRS. Do you remember them? The brigading? The purity tests? The militant extreme feminism? Sound familiar?
/r/SRS was the prototype for what reddit was to become. Not the grey tribe free speech absolutists. They may have started reddit, but ultimately they lost. In fact, the founders of reddit lost in the most stereotypical ways possible for idealistic young grey tribers (Steve Huffman decided getting paid was more important, Aaron Swartz got crushed by the leviathan of the state, and Serena Williams made Alexis Ohanian her bitch).
Now that same vein of militant feminism has wormed its way into everything. Not just reddit, but most of the internet and liberal culture as well. You remember the debates during the early 2020s where the left leaning people hid behind the fact that there was no clear definition of "woke" in order to claim that it didn't exist. Well, fine tune an LLM on early 2010s /r/SRS and /r/TwoXChromosomes and its world view would be pretty damn close to the mark.
More options
Context Copy link