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 -
This is incredible use of equivocation of the word "conspiracy". I can name twenty such "conspiracies" that are not even talked about as such on the left. Ranging from overarching theological ones such as that all men consciously and unconsciously conspired to create the mystical "system" of patriarchy to oppress all women to a very specific conspiracies promoted by academia such as that Republicans want to create uninformed voters who will get them in power.
I am not doing this in some tu quoque ad hominem. But telling that some large voting bloc of tens of millions of people believes "conspiracies" is like saying that water is wet. For instance I can say that the death of George Floyd was the hallmark of conspiracy lunatics taking over the public discourse in 2020. If tomorrow some crazy person killed Kamala Harris, you can immediately assign conspiracy theories to her, her supporters, her detractors and everybody in between. It is useless category in such a broad definition.
In context of above "conspiracies", maybe you are aware that for instance former Young Turks progressive Anna Kasparian is highly supportive of Owens theories. She endorses Owens, Carlson and is fully behind them. So by that metric I can say that It is no secret that DNC under progressives really like conspiracies. Including that of Kirk murder. Now some people say it is a cynical ploy by leftist operatives to split the vote and demoralize Republican voters for the upcoming elections. But that is exactly the point, it by itself is a "conspiracy theory", and yet another potential thing for you to list as such. It is all an incredible mess.
Anna Kasparian is of the opinion that the Democrats are effectively the same as the republicans and does not support them. Her an her cohost are quite insistent on this.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link