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 -
Because he's based his career on racism and learning all about the ways to weaponise such accusations, and the UK police have been pushed to investigate such accusations under current law.
It's an over-correction, if you like; if, as with the Rotherham rape gangs where the assumption in part was "well yeah these are lower-class white trash girls, you can't take their accusations seriously", attitudes about allegations of racial discrimination and harassment were "nothing happening here, probably all lies and fake accusations", then the over-correction was "take all claims seriously and investigate them (even if you think they're nonsense)".
Also could be a criminal offense under the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act. Arday rings the police and claims the journalist is harassing him by trying to persuade his place of employment that he's a liar and a fraud, is making fake claims about Arday, etc. and conveniently leaves out that the guy is a journalist investigating plagiarism charges. Police don't get to decide "okay this is a nothing burger", they have to at least do a basic investigation. That it took four months indicates to me that the cops weren't straining at the leash to prosecute this wicked monster attacking a poor innocent black guy, but rather had better things to do and just left it in a file on someone's desk:
Wikipedia link:
and
More options
Context Copy link