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 they're deceiving us into thinking they're merely stupid when they're actually malign, they do a good job!
In Australia right now people are getting excited about 'green hydrogen' and 'green steel' to be produced with solar energy. This is to be done in the desert near the iron, where nobody wants to live. Our actual steel industry is at death's door, our car industry is dead, our plastics industry is shutting down due to high energy costs... and these geniuses want to:
The cold civil war against the middle class was over in Western countries 20 years before the losers realized it was even being waged in the first place. The last holdout was arguably Germany, and idiotic environmental policies and politicians (or perhaps those bought and paid for by rich Americans; only France seems to treat environmental NGOs like the Fifth Columnists they are) brought their economy to an end once the US got the war they'd been agitating for (at Germany's direct expense with respect to energy costs, and at America's direct benefit through LNG exports).
I'm sure all that's totally a coincidence though.
The last ~150 years of history make a lot more sense to me when I consider that certain factions never wanted Germany to be a country, period.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link