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 -
Thanks to Schindler's List, the edited version that doesn't specify Jews is possibly the most famous verse that isn't one of the commandments. Could just be part of him playing the media game and knowing what's popular.
Not knowing how to read the original text, is "Jewish" there explicit or just implied?
As a hypothetical, "the people" in the Second Amendment could be translated as "Americans" pretty reasonably for a global audience, but there are probably more than a few "shall not be infringed" stans that would explicitly claim the right should be universal, but probably not to the point of, say, invading Canada to hand out guns to everyone there. I'm not sure I'd claim either way is "correct" per se: the source material is a bit ambiguous.
Google Translate translates the Hebrew text between the first two commas, "诇职诇址诪旨侄讚职讱指 砖讈侄讻旨讎诇 讛址诪职讗址讘旨值讚 谞侄驻侄砖讈 讗址讞址转 诪执讬旨执砖讉职专指讗值诇", as "to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul from Israel"鈥攕o, explicit.
This also indicates that the English translation on the linked page uses bold text for literal translation from the original Hebrew and nonbold text for explanatory notes that otherwise would require a zillion square brackets:
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link