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 think a big problem for the study is that it assumes that college is representative of the Real World. It’s really probably less connected to the real world than most other communities. There’s the fact of the similar ages (18-25), the marriage status (almost all single), duration (living in the community 24-7 for 4 years). If I was going to create the bast possible environment for sexual assault (by any definition), it Would probably be exactly the structure of the college campus. Newly liberated young adults living in an environment full of other young adults with minimal responsibility, and no connection to either families or significant others. It’s young unattached adults who look for sex and love and are willing to bend or break rules to get it, especially with alcohol involved.
The setup is nothing like most of the rest of your life. In most of your working life, you might spend 40-50 hours at work, but you don’t live with your workmates. Your workmates are not all the same age. They’re also unlikely to be single, and if they are,they’re not your age. I think that using college students to study wider human society makes less sense than studying people on navy ships or astronauts or movie actors and using that to figure out what is going on in the rest of the country. College isn’t real life. And it’s not even close to how most women live.
To my knowledge every study has concluded that women in the same age group are more likely to be sexually assaulted if they aren't in college.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link