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 -
Most political messaging is not designed for people like you. Based on your writing ability, you seem to be of above-average intelligence, and based on the effort you have put into your post, you seem to be very interested in politics.
Most political messaging is designed for people of average intelligence and average levels of interest in politics. There are millions of people who have not even been paying attention to the election campaign and are only about now starting to tune in because the election is coming up in a few months. There are millions of people who do not have the cognitive ability to notice the contradiction between past and present journalism articles about Kamala Harris, or any other topic, unless you make it ridiculously explicit for them.
The aim is clear: they're trying to shift a simple and powerful "she was in charge and failed" into some boring debate about titles so that the mind of the voter tunes out and is not occupied by the border and rather something else (preferably abortion).
I'm not sure it's going to work though. Even with total media blackout the mess is big enough it's going to be hard to avoid discussing. And if you're shifting blame and look evasive you look even worse.
Biden's strategy of owning it and bare face lying that his failure is actually a success may actually have been the superior rejoinder. "I don't know who's telling the truth" is much better on a losing issue than "he's attacking her and she's making excuses".
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link