site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 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.

7
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

One of the funniest and most absurd movies I've ever seen, its premise revolves around two lesbian high school friends setting up their own "fight club" to ostensibly offer self-defence lessons to girls, when in fact they just want to get laid. If that doesn't entice you, the self defence teacher is none other than Marshawn Lynch.

I apologize for the snark, but when you open with this and you give the most importance to the identity of the characters rather than even so much as including a memorable scene, I am rather inclined to doubt that there is a part more memorable than starring lesbians.

If I tried to describe Weird Science - nerdy boys make magical female to get laid/have fun- it would involve just as demographic information in the summary as the one OP gave. And it would be just as relevant - the comedy is coming from the very fact that they are heterosexual and are trying to sate those drives.

Obviously, since lesbians are a minority, you'd have to make it more explicit but it's pretty similar.

Is there any comedy that you’d try to recommend by describing a memorable scene? I find explaining a joke never comes across well.

It’s possible to reference a scene without agonizingly explaining the joke. For example, “I never expected to enjoy a movie where Ben Stiller masturbating is not one, but two plot points.” I assume this is what OP was going for, letting the reader imagine Marshawn Lynch coaching lesbian wrestling.

All that aside, yeah, the movie probably isn’t great. Most aren’t, and that’s before narrowing the field to horny teen comedies. But this is the CW thread, so we might as well get some mileage out of it.