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 -
If the adverts were truly non-invasive and didn’t try hijacking my attention (or indeed the damn computer itself), I wouldn’t bother with an as blocker at all. I believe in content creators and businesses collecting the revenue for my use of their services to perpetuate themselves, but the industry as a whole hasn’t progressed much relative to the speed to technological advancement.
Modern technology is about custom answers to individuals, not about “macro efficiency” in the old economic sense. Compare the differences between the subscription model for television and the advertising model. If you’re using television to advertise (which is the old model), you want the least common denominator program. You want the show that everybody watches so you can stick in the ad and show it to the largest amount of people. Today, you’re looking to get the next subscriber. You now want the show that “somebody” wants to watch, but it’s someone who doesn’t watch the shows you’ve already sold them. This is what gets you niche programming. Thats why streaming platforms constantly struggle to find “the next 12 people” who want “that next weird show.” Because it they show it to someone who’s already been captured by your advertising efforts, that’s 0 profit. From a productivity standpoint in economic statistics, that’s a complete disaster; because you’re putting large amounts of resources into the smallest audiences possible; not the largest audience possible. That just looks bad in stats.
More options
Context Copy link