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 -
"Current Year" started as a meme on places like 4chan. It was observed that a common specious argument would go something like: "You don't support gay marriage? But it's 2014!" "How could you not have socialized healthcare? It's 2015?" The idea was that people were advancing incredulity and consensus instead of an actual argument. After a few years of this argument being popular, it became mocked in the phrase, "It's current year!"
After Trump's election in 2016 and the shock that engendered, it became common for some people to refer to the year 2016 as "Current Year." With the implication that we never mentally left the shock of those events.
"Whomst inquired" is a specific instantiation of a more general meme that essentially made fun of the word "Whom". First you have "who," then in more formal contexts you use "whom," so, obviously, there must be "whomst," "whomst'd," "whomst'd've," and so on down the line. "Whomst inquired" is a whimsical way of saying, "Who asked," i.e., "nobody asked for this but..."
"Second-world person" has a few different meanings because it doesn't exactly have any meaning anymore. It sits between "first-world" and "third-world," and is a leftover term from the Cold War. (US and its allies were first-world, Soviets and its allies were second-world, the non-aligned world was third-world, which is also sometimes a synonym for the world's shitholes.)) In this case, it means he's not an American.
Thank you for the detailed and accurate summation. I really do appreciate it!
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link