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 -
Growing up in the UK in the 1980's, you normally saw national flags in schools in two situations - classrooms usually used for foreign language lessons, and displays of large numbers of small flags (either because you were in a geography classroom or because some piece of silly internationalism was being celebrated). Schools were technically government buildings, so a school that had a flagpole would fly the Union Flag on the 10-15 days a year when flags were supposed to be flown from government buildings.
As a parent of school-age kids in the Current Year, the two standard use cases are still common. Actual cloth Union Flags still seem rare, but schools in immigrant-heavy areas are expected to teach "British values" which in practice means that there is usually a wall display of kid-coloured paper Union Flags up somewhere in the school. I don't know if this happens in outer-suburban whiteopia. The other thing that changed is that since the 2012 Diamond Jubilee, low-key celebration of royal occasions somehow stopped being cringe. So my son's school was all done up with red, white and blue bunting for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee and the 2023 Coronation.
There was a large Pride flag in the visitors' entrance lobby during Pride Month, but my impression was that Pride was otherwise low-key in the way you would expect at a school where muslims and west African evangelicals together make up almost half of the parents.
Yeah, that's where I usually saw other flags. We didn't even have the national flag in school in my time, or in the school I worked in. But it's been about fifteen years since then, so I don't know if they put up Pride flags or what have you. I'd be surprised, but not shocked to learn they did so.
I think because over here the classrooms are "this is the Fifth Year classroom" and teachers for the different subjects move around between the year rooms, rather than having one room of their own that the classes move around (apart from things like home economics room, science lab, metal and woodwork rooms, art room, gym) then there isn't the same kind of individualisation where a teacher could stick up the Israeli or other flag. And so there isn't the same sense of ownership, of "this is my room and I can customise it whatever way I like". If you are not making your classroom an extension of your personality, I think maybe the same motivation isn't present.
But that's separate from Jewish teacher losing his mind over Muslim student questioning having the Israeli flag in the classroom, which is the hot button topic right now. Although again, if the kids are being taught all up through school about being minorities and being offended and that offensive materials should be taken down and the only response the authorities should make is agreement, is it any surprise a kid piped up about "that offends me"? Threatening to cut her head off is too extreme a response, though, and the guy definitely crossed the line by following them through the hall, yelling and swearing. Any teacher is going to get into trouble for yelling and cursing in the school hallway:
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link