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 -
Don't you think it's funny that the complaint about the portrayal of Jonah Hill in that movie is that the family is portrayed as "white, privileged and racist"? Like, don't you think that the "white, privileged, racist" character abounds in almost every single film nowadays, and the complaint is that some of the Jewish characters comes across as white? "How dare they portray a Jewish character with the characteristics we give to so many white characters!" It's an example of my point. Those qualities are only supposed to be reserved for non-Jewish characters, that way the audience learns its lessons about who is good and who is bad. We can't go giving a Jewish character the flaws that we want to attribute to white people! Come on, how much more obvious can they make this for you?
I'm not talking about stereotype portrayal, I'm talking about the creation of stories where one side is built up and the other side is torn down, and this has an intended psychological effect on audiences. OP's reflection that he relates to Jews more than his ingroup because, in part, of the nerd/jock dynamic as portrayed in Hollywood is a good example of that phenomenon.
I bet many jocks related more to the nerd in the story than the jocks portrayed in them. That's the entire point. It's not about stereotype portrayal alone. It's about esoterically building up one ethnically-coded archetype and tearing down another through the use of myth. This practice is biblical, literally, the entire point of the bible is to do this.
Isn't Jacob and Esau only among the first myths representing the rivalry between nerd and jock, Jew and Aryan?
More options
Context Copy link