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 -
Scott Alexander had a number of posts examining how dissent is 'quashed' and then sublimates out into other behaviors that are 'safe' yet still demonstrate one's resistance to the overculture's norms... although usually in ways that do not threaten the overculture's dominance.
I guess that is the question. Even if Twitter is the venue through which the right is able to score wins, are they actually damaging the overculture in doing so, or is the overculture hurting itself via inter-factional squabbles over control of the reins of power? Reins that the right is nowhere near reaching but can pretend to make a play for as the left's grip loosens?
Hence why I think it makes more sense that the series of events (for convenience, limiting it to Post-Covid) that has shown cracks in the Cathedral's otherwise uniform facade has both made it harder for the left to quash dissent (since so much 'dissent' is now coming from their side!) and emboldened their opponents on the right and the populace at large.
You can given an honorable mention to "Lets Go Brandon" as a watershed moment of realization 'you can mock the king and get away with it.'
Finally, Travis Corcoran's Iron Catastrophe theory makes some sense of it too. They're running out of rhetorical 'fuel' and are increasingly reverting to raw power as a means of suppression, but that fuel burns hot and doesn't last so long.
This doesn't ring true to me at all. As bad as the culture war got, lese majeste was never much of an issue, the sacred cows were other things.
Did even the most brain-poisoned boomer in the depths of the worst of it ever feel like they couldn't freely mock Joe Biden? I don't recall any holding back before that moment, from people who weren't holding back after it. And I didn't get any impression that that played any particular part in a preference cascade freeing cowed silent people on the borderline from their bonds either.
At most, it gave already committed partisans a big single meme to regroup around and build some confidence and unity.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link