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 -
There's plenty of interest in and research being done into the causes of depression, from very many angles, both biological and psychological. I don't think any of it's been productive, but that's a separate issue.
I am not completely unaware that this kind of research is out there, but I think my assumption has always been that psychiatrists are much more aware of the cutting edge of such research, and can therefore apply whatever conclusions have been made to individual cases--assuming individual cases are explored to some degree and not (simply) medicated away. I realize on writing this that I sound possibly naive here, but I, and I assume most people even if possibly not most people here, make this same assumption about most doctors, including gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, surgeons, etc That if I have some physical ailment that they've done the time in med school to not just prescribe some inhibitor or agonist, but they also have some educated guess as to what might have gotten me to the point of peptic ulcer, or insulin resistance, or whatever. Were a doctor to say something like "You're pre diabetic, here's a pill" I see that as a failure of medicine.
Likewise, the psychiatrist. I understand the mind is a locked box to some degree.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link