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 -
Shouldn’t there be a Victorian notion of pure sexless innocent children? I’m not talking even teenagers. But…what is so bad with me wanting my future 8 year old (only a few years away) to be innocent?
No? South Park is more of a documentary than anyone ever wants to admit to themselves and I'm still trying to figure out why nobody acknowledges this; third grade was a fine time for "I heard she got in trouble for doing lesbian stuff in the bathroom", making tons of dick jokes, and figuring out exactly how flexible the middle finger is when it comes to expressing oneself.
I have reason to believe my experience is typical, and as such I'm still trying to figure out why nobody else remembers this... or is simply motivated not to remember- that was a plausible enough explanation for 10 year old me (having an upbringing , and I have received no evidence suggesting he wasn't correct. Maybe being sophisticated enough to notice this stuff is connected to being able to remember it in the first place, I dunno.
Whose interest do you think that outlook serves and why?
("Only mine, I don't like the aesthetics of my little bundle of joy saying 'suck my balls, you fucking bitch'" is an acceptable and interesting answer.)
You sound like a dude. I’m a dude. I have zero clue how ten year old girls really talked. It wasn’t clear from my post but I have daughters.
There is even a difference between 8 and 10.
I have aesthetic reasons for wanting my daughters to remain innocent but also practical ones that aren’t as relevant for boys.
The answer is "just [as bad as] the boys". Well, not so much on the dick jokes for what should be obvious reasons.
Third grade, however, is not 10.
While that is the time in my life I developed the notion that "adults are forgetting on purpose", the evidence for that view was piling up prior to that.
Do tell; I'm very curious as to how "knows the words and the specifics" is supposed to translate into "loose virtue/an easy mark".
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting something but I do find it weird to bring it up here.
Culture is so saturated with straight sexuality that it seems like- unless you have different standards for queer sexuality and straight sexuality-
You must be spending way more of your time sheltering them from the straight stuff.
This here. Western culture rams straight sexuality down the throat I. Copius amounts and seems to be oblivious of what it's doing. However when to comes to queer sexuality that's far less intense than the staraight stuff suddenly we have a moral panic on our hands.
Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, if you don't like sexuality permitting everything then the way to do that is stop putting sexuality in everything.
Now I'd personally be quite happy with the proposed arrangement, sounds like a damn good deal to me, I don't care for how sexualised mainstream culture is. But I'd point out that there are actually some other options. Number 1 is to just suppress minority sexualities and continue allowing the promotion of the sexuality of the majority, in fact this is substantially easier than simply suppressing sexuality all together.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Frankly I do intend to shelter them for both as long as I can. But I also have a different standard especially when it comes to trans stuff. I think trans is contagion (to a large degree; there probably are a very small subset with gender dysmorphia).
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Does "innocent" mean "My child should never be exposed to any hint of sexuality, ever?" A literal Victorian notion would be something like "Pregnant women should be kept out of public sight because it would cause children to ask awkward questions and then they might start wondering where babies come from."
My five year old has seen my wife pregnant with my five year old’s siblings. She understands babies come from mommy. But we haven’t explained to her how babies are made outside of a generic mommies and daddies make babies when they are adults and married. We can talk more about it when you are older.
More options
Context Copy link
I'm far from an expert on the Victorian era, but I never heard of this, and a bit of Googling doesn't seem to turn up anything like that. Where did you get that idea from?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I'm not sure quite what to label the phenomena but when I think back to being exposed to unimaginably hardcore pornography (goatse, lemonparty, 2girls1cup, that nail in dick thing) at ~8 years old I'm existentially horrified, but also just laugh it off like most of my peers.
It's also just occurred to me as I'm typing this your kids' experience with all that may be a great deal more sanitized than mine.
Wait, goatse qualifies as existential horror?
I guess it's true what they say: you gaze into that abyss, and that abyss gazes back into you.
More options
Context Copy link
pain4 iirc
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link