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 -
Left-leaning communities are also notorious for engaging in circular firing squads over being insufficiently pious.
They're also notorious for ham-fisted censorship drives over pet causes that cause mass exodus of users. Remember gamergate ? Well most of the people who were pissed with moderation re: the BPD slut who shall not be named weren't right-leaning. It was mostly random gamers, centrist or left leaning.
Really, they're well known for being very ban happy. Consider e.g. Resetera, one of the left-leaning gaming forums.
Yeah, look. One of the advantages of moving here is that we no longer have to use "***" or "who-shall-not-be-named" evasions, so if you want to talk about someone, just talk about them, by name, rather than flinging epithets.
Insulting public figures is permissible to a point, but just calling someone a "BPD slut" is not a quality contribution to the discourse. If you think Zoe Quinn's alleged BPD or sluttiness is pertinent, go ahead and talk about it, but not just because you think this is a place where throwing random put-downs at your enemies is cool.
As far as I'm aware, the whole affair blew up because of her BPD & slutty behavior. World would never have learned the allegations that she had sex with people reviewing games had she not cheated on and lied to her boyfriend. Clarification: and because of the excessive nature of the cheating, he got so angry he wrote a very long very salty exposé he posted online, where it still is, which set off the whole scandal.
Anyone with a brain knew gaming journalism was dirty - I've read similar complaints in late 1990s, but it was usually boring stuff related to advertising income, access that few cared about, etc.
This salacious interlude and the coordinated censorship blew the arrangement up for good. Now as I understand gaming journalists are mostly irrelevant, and various amateur reviewers or streamers matter far more.
EDIT:
clarification added
More options
Context Copy link
It's also not in the interest of clarity. I wouldn't have known who "the BPD slut" is supposed to be - I'd have to (look up Gamergate and) take a guess from context. If a name is used instead, I either know who is being referred to or can easily look it up.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link