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 -
Capitalism has been tried many times and even when executed with flaws has been a resounding success. If capitalists were in charge of the corporations instead of the PMC IYI - disney's experiments with putting a chick in and making it gay would have been cut way shorter. Harvard wouldn't fuck up their reputation for no tangible benefit. DEIs would have been dead in the water. NY Times wouldn't have turned into - the worst of gawker media, but with less typos. And the businesses would have been way less political.
News is dead, but it seems to me that Substack - which is purely capitalistic venture is doing fine.
It's interesting how some of the biggest defenders of capitalism ironically are academics,.. Friedman, Sowell the Chicago School. It's one things where why not practice what they preach. In reality, a cushy academic job writing books and giving lectures beats the high failure rate and uncertainty of small business. Same for office jobs. The actual capitalism that involves people putting their money on the line is much risker and it's understandable why so many people take the easier path. The failure rate is too high and too hard to get funding. The problem is not regulation as often blamed but rather getting the customers and capital and dealing wit everything else that can suddenly go wrong. Regulation and taxes factors low on this yet it's always the part that gets the most attention.
It varies from state to state, but what I've read from business owners is that taxes factor low but compliance with vague and shifting regulations can be a disaster:
"As a business owner in California, I am going to have to do a ton of research to figure out just how we can comply with all this, and even then I will likely be wrong because whether one is in compliance or not is never actually clear until it is tested in court. I had to do the same thing with California meal break law (multiple times), California heat stress law, new California harassment rules, California sick leave rules, the California minimum wage, Obamacare rules, Obamacare reporting, the new upcoming DOL rules on salaried employees, etc.
Five or ten years ago, I spent most of my free time thinking about improving and growing the business. Now, all my mental bandwidth is consumed by regulatory compliance. I have not added a new business operation for years, but instead have spent most of my time exiting businesses in California. Perhaps more important is what I am doing with my managers. My managers are not Harvard MBAs, they are front-line blue collar folks who have been promoted to manager because they have proven themselves adept at our service process. There are only a finite number of things I can teach them and new initiatives I can give them in a year. And instead of using this limited bandwidth to teach some of the vital productivity enhancement tools we should be adopting, I spend all my training time on compliance management issues."
To be fair, this might be partly selection bias; the business owners who stay in business long enough to write a lot about it are the ones who already survived dealing with capital and customers and emergencies and all.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
If we are talking about the execrable Star Wars sequel trilogy, capitalism isn't telling Disney to knock it off. All three movies made money hand over fist, and The Farce Awakens set US box office records. Capitalism can create good art, but it usually doesn't. The best art appears to be created by priestly types who actually believe in their religion, like Bach or Michelangelo. Walt Disney himself is something of a weird case that in my view proves the rule - Disney was a for-profit company organised on capitalist principles, but based on his writings Walt saw himself as a priest of the American civic religion (that included capitalism) rather than a pure capitalist who made movies because it was more lucrative than soap, and left "running Disney like a business" to his brother Roy.
No one knew what was coming during the Force Awakens, and they were cashing in on nostalgia, not on putting a chick in it, and making her gay and lame. If capitalism wasn't telling Disney to knock it off, they wouldn't be whinging about their precious franchises falling off a cliff.
Weirdly specific comment, but a guy in the row in front of my group happened to get up and go to the bathroom during the scene in the next movie (don't remember the name and don't want to bother to look it up) where Princess Leia got blasted out of the starship and I told him 'I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but Princess Leia just died'
And then a few seconds later she flew herself back into the starship.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link