site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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.

26
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I lost interest in Canadian politics after I saw this article. I cannot say for certain that the election was rigged. But if you were going to rig the election, this is what it would look like.

https://torontosun.com/news/national/elections-canada-205000-mail-in-ballots-were-not-counted/wcm/fc92a391-61f2-4da2-9104-e402ca4f2639/amp/

(February 2022)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6499013

Almost 100,000 mail ballots not counted in federal election: Elections Canada (June 2022)

Even when you are caught, claiming it's a mistake is perfect plausible deniability.

That it happened twice in a row, I find completely unconscionable.

The Canadian government's actions against political dissidents over the last two years leave it a non-democracy regardless of election procedures. You can't have free, fair elections if huge swaths of political opinion are the target of state violence. After the use of the emergencies act against people protesting vaccine mandates, how certain can we be that Trudeau won't engage in similar attacks on his other political opponents when expedient?

"You can have protests as long as they are inconsequential enough for us to safely ignore" is not all that different than "you can't have protests".

The right only thinks they're special because they have never protested anything before.

This was in fact the very first and only time the Emergencies Act (1988) was invoked, for a protest or otherwise. Its predecessor, the War Measures Act, was invoked against a leftist Quebec Nationalist group... not due to a protest but after they kidnapped a diplomat.

was invoked against a leftist Quebec Nationalist group... not due to a protest but after they kidnapped a diplomat.

They also kidnapped and strangled a provincial cabinet minister from Quebec -- although I think the murdering was not until after Trudeau had invoked the War Measures.