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 -
I’m pro 2A mostly because of crime. The problem with being unarmed in America is that any criminal who wants a gun can get one so easily that it’s a safe assumption that anyone committing a crime would have one. Police are effectively corralled into coming several minutes later to write and file reports that — even if the do somehow find the criminal, that criminal won’t be prosecuted or if they are, it’s a very light sentence, and thus don’t matter— don’t help except in getting insurance to pay for repairs to the damage. This makes disarming the law-abiding effectively a unilateral disarmament in the face of rising criminality when no other help is available.
Most of the actual solutions to crime would be so long term as to be non solutions. Re-empowering the police to deal with crime as it happens would be good, and probably the only one that would help within the decade. Recriminalizing drugs would help by reducing crime associated with drug use and give cops a good way to get rid of known criminals. Beyond that, it’s things that need to change in the culture— stopping the glorification of guns, crime, and drug use, creating a culture of achievement, politeness, and regard for others — would be changes on the order of decades, assuming it’s even possible. Basically you’d have to turn American city culture into something at least like Europe or East Asia to get there, and I’m not sure you can do that.
More options
Context Copy link