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 -
I kinda disagree. As long as the problem lacks a critical mass of concerned citizens, no political solution will even be sought. Politician don’t care if the world might blow up ten years from now, but if their donors or voters think it will and want you to do something about it, you will. A few cranks making long videos and podcasts might as well talk to the wall, because until the problem is mainstream enough that not dealing with it is a problem, it’s not going to happen.
This has always been a problem. The people who care about the environment are basically hippies and college kids. Nobody really cares, and as long as it remains the preview of low status nobodies, the best you get is lip service. More recently, there was the Reddit antiwork fiasco. Until then, people were starting to consider the idea of improving working conditions. It stopped dead once the face of the movement because a loser nonbinary woman who walked dogs a few hours a week while living in her parents’s home in California. Once the movement was tainted with that image— a low status laughingstock— any hope for progress was lost.
I suggest that people like that are the face of antiwork because antiwork doesn't mesh with the real world very well and someone like that is insulated from the real world considerations that make it obvious that antiwork is impractical.
That is, the lack of popularity is not some happenstance and the movement didn't just get unlucky.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link