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 -
Gratitude is obviously good, but the gratitude should not be in comparison to the perceived immorality of your neighbors. Even if someone “deserves” some poor circumstance, it is still a bad idea to situate yourself as superior to your neighbor whose inner life you don’t know. The reason the Pharisee is unjust whereas the Publican is made just, is that the Pharisee is only grateful in relation to those he feels are inferior, and he judges a random neighbor as inferior even when that very man is crying out to his same God! And then, the next omitted part of the Pharisee’s prayer, is that he congratulates himself on his superiority because he pays tithes and fasts twice a week, which are really of secondary importance in the moral life. Those external, ritual-based details are criticized by Jesus on many occasions, because they should not be one’s focus in comparison to love for God and neighbor. (Sometimes online I see Muslim content about how farting disrupts their ritual purity and requires washing with prayer, or I see Jewish content about purifying one’s oven for dairy after it was used for meat, or even Christian content about the theologically correct minutiae of the Trinity, and I can’t help but see this all as identical to Pharisseeism, a completely false spiritual focus).
An alternative righteous Pharisee’s prayer would be to thank God for His delivery from evil and health and any sort of progress without bringing down others; to thank God and then to ask God to deliver the Publican; then perhaps to ask forgiveness for having the wrong moral focus, to recognize one’s mistakes (which every person on earth makes), and to seek what more can be done to please God.
More options
Context Copy link