site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 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.

6
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

They can emigrate. And besides the war is popular in Russia.

If a person decides to be a soldier then their path is their choice. Even if their a conscript they can surrender to Ukraine. These options might involve some risks but they do have options. You act like they are non playable characters.

This kind of reminds me of those free range eggs where the chickens have a 2x2 patch of grass that they could theoretically use but almost exclusively don't.

It's a way for people to completely negate the moral worth of another person. Why didn't the Confederate soldiers desert? Why didn't the Nazi? If they didn't surrender, fuck it, they deserve to die. After all, 1% did the "right thing".

Notice, however, that this assumes there even is a "right thing". Had the Germans won, perhaps they'd be arguing the same from the opposite perspective.

Or perhaps in 50 years, any non-vegan will be similar perceived as a moral monster. After all, there are some people today who are vegans. I don't know. I just err on the side of not killing hundreds of thousands of humans unless there is a clear and obvious reason why it's necessary.

In any case, I think we're getting sidetracked. We should end this war for the sake of the Ukrainians even if Russian lives have zero value to you.

I just err on the side of not killing hundreds of thousands of humans unless there is a clear and obvious reason why it's necessary.

Does Putin? No, it's us, halfway around the world, that are supposed to care more about his people than he does. Well, if the abysmal performance of his army have now reduced that murderer’s threats to bleeding on us, let him.

Does Putin? No, it's us, halfway around the world, that are supposed to care more about his people than he does.

No of course not. He is indifferent to human suffering. I am not. I don't value Russian lives 1:1 with American lives. And certainly not 1:1 with anyone I care about. But I do think they have some value.

Well, if the abysmal performance of his army have now reduced that murderer’s threats to bleeding on us, let him.

Because maybe Ukrainian lives have value even if Russian ones don't.

Ukranians have agency. If they wanted to end the war then they could end the war. If they don’t have political power then they can emigrate.

To be honest I always take views like yours as a desire to see the US regime to lose and not some real belief that it isn’t a good fight and the care for a Ukranians is just a justification for seeing team pride lose in the Us.

To be honest I always take views like yours as a desire to see the US regime to lose and not some real belief that it isn’t a good fight and the care for a Ukranians is just a justification for seeing team pride lose in the Us.

Completely wrong. I am a patriotic American. US values are better than Russian ones, and I want the US to win. I just care more about the human suffering than I do about some abstract strategic goal.

If you press me, though, I don't care about the war all that much. I care about the US much more than Ukraine or Russia.

The men cannot emigrate. I do think the wide use of conscription morally complicates our assistance and wish they would not use it.

Not the biggest fan of conscription either.