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 -
Your post touches on a lot of thoughts I’ve had lately. I no longer consider myself as having a political ideology anymore. Political systems to me seem to rely on time and place far more than 2005 me would have believed in let’s Democratize the Middle East and make them good people. The US of course doesn’t believe in any concept of Democracy on the world stage. It’s basically a dictatorship. We don’t let Indians and Chinese dominate decisions because there are more of them and they would. And I believe that would be a bad thing.
Running on time/place I don’t believe Russia should or could have been a Democracy for most of its history. The military threat was too great that a centralized autocracy diverting large amount of resources to military was likely their necessary form of government. Though under the American umbrella now and with nukes seems obsolete.
Democracy worked in America because we had a continent of people sharing the basically the same big cultural things. If we were say 51% Muslim and 49% Christian with the Muslims basically getting what they wanted on everything it wouldn’t work. Democracy requires that you are basically one tribe moving in one direction. And I think a certain average IQ is necessary.
The whole Democracy thing seems to break when those factors aren’t in place. It hasn’t worked in places like Syria and it seems to be failing in S. Africa.
Which perhaps the one thing I believe in is a form of true Christian Nationalism. With Christian Nationalism being the foundation of America. By this I mean a belief in human rights and values of humans that comes with being a Christian where those in power have a limiting force on oppressing the weak. A belief in a common good.
More options
Context Copy link