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 -
If we start the story with the beginning of the Great Awokening in c. 2012, then the orthodox left (actual Marxists like Freddie de Boer) starts pushing back against woke-stupid almost immediately - the first famous left-wing anti-woke essay is Exiting the Vampire Castle in November 2013 (which, incidentally, defends Russell Brand from charges of sexism - that didn't age well) - i.e. less than 2 years in. FdB was already blogging from a woke-sceptical left-wing perspective at that time, but he wasn't famous. Will Shetterly wrote Social Justice Warriors - do not engage - a book-length attack from the left on the woke-stupid take over of science fiction fandom - in 2014 in response to RaceFail. (I think the use of SJW as a perjorative probably traces back to Shetterly via Vox Day and Gamergate, but I am not sure). And 2016 vintage Bernie promotes a class-first leftism that is at least implicitly anti-woke, and is treated as such by wokists. Within the establishment left, Jonathan Haidt has been warning about this sort of thing since day one, and Matthew Yglesias has been openly heterodox on multiple occasions. The Harpers letter in 2020 may be the first time that left-wing opposition to woke-stupid makes the establishment listen.
If you go back to the 1990's era Political Correctness, then left-wing pushback against woke-stupid was very normal. You have Democratic presidential candidates and British Labour leaders publically calling out far-left PC idiocy in order to win elections.
More options
Context Copy link