site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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.

12
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Ah, hell. I hadn't heard about this. Either a tragedy or an outrage, not sure which.

Can a pardon be issued before the trial is actually complete? He was indicted, not convicted, on murder and assault charges, and the trial may well reveal any or all of that alleged exculpatory evidence. Watching the video, there's plenty of ambiguity. I don't want to jump to conclusions based off two Twitter clips and two sets of media spin, and neither should the Board.

As a side note--there's some dark humor in juxtaposing these claims about Soros DAs with the claims downthread.

Yeah, I don’t see it as a “gotcha” so much as a footnote. The problem is that the initial complaints don’t bother including the footnote because their audience already knows what Soros is supposed to represent.

Can a pardon be issued before the trial is actually complete?

I guess Texas could have some real weird rule, but generally yes. You're usually pardoned for crimes committed, not to overturn the conviction.

It’s only like a day old. You probably heard about it back then.

So there’s also video of the guy killed with AK saying the people that hate them are too much of a pussy to do anything. So both sides have statements making them look guilty.

I guess the car was stopped for 6.2 seconds so maybe that’s long enough for him not to have “provocation issues”. And tough guy with AK certainly could have raised it.