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 -
The jury came up with the final number, they could have said it is $100k per family. Claimants originally asked for $550 million - a dollar for each view of the video. Why a dollar? Because it is nice number, there is no history behind it, there is no calculation or anything. It just sounds nice and reasonable. This is by the way a common practice in jury system, where you provide a psychological anchor for jury, so you massage them toward maximum payout.
The jury then just said - fuck it, Jones will pay almost three times that number, because why not? He is a stupid evil goblin. Or maybe it was something else and jury came up with some novel idea of how to calculate these punitive damages as $2.54 per view, or maybe they used a different key. We will never know because jury does not have to explain shit.
Sympathetic victims, goblin perpetrator who is crazy enough not to even defend properly and good jury is what is key to get class defining payout. By the way the verdict also stipulates that 50% of Jones income is to be transferred to victims indefinitely despite not even being sentenced for criminal activity without ability to go bankrupt. So he became something akin to debt slave by this. That is exactly how the jury system works.
More options
Context Copy link