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 not sure I understand the point you're making. Is your argument that since it's mostly blacks being murdered, gun violence is no big deal or...?
Yes. Now that there's no need for vast amounts of field labor, blacks are even more obsolete than whites. That they're killing each other in serious numbers doesn't really matter. If young 130IQ white and asian males were prone to duelling and suffered similar attrition rates, that'd be worth paying some attention to. That people who at best would break even, tax contribution/expense wise are killing each other, and at worst (repeat offenders) are very expensive are killing each other doesn't matter.
Yes it's bad, but in the present political arrangement the cure paternalism, apartheid or serious social control etc is worse than the problem.
More options
Context Copy link
Lol, I've had an identical argument with another Australian friend, almost word for word.
A minority race's cultural problems aren't our collective national responsibility to pay for.
If we want to solve the problem, we already know how. It's to use programs to patch problems in low-income urban culture. It still would cost billions of dollars, but is preferable to wiping our ass with our core governmental document and punishing 80% of the country.
More options
Context Copy link
...or that that looking at the countries you mention will yield very little useful results for the US, given the differences in populations they consist of.
If guns were the issue, you wouldn't be getting the statistics he's citing. The UK also wouldn't be freaking out about "knife crime".
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link