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 -
Entire Europe had a wave of revolutionary violence in the 19th century. There was a surely a number of coups. At the very least Serbia had a pretty nasty coup in which the monarch was killed, his wife too and the killers kept her severed breast, later dried, as a souvenir. Those nice guys who did the coup later were a proximate cause to WW1..
Napoleon was an absolute ruler and also almost united Europe.
Greeks believed it's natural for democracies to decay into dictatorships, and when considering the fate of western liberal democracies - none are actually much democratic anymore insofar as voting doesn't help. (no one voted for immigration, no one voted for more war, Macron lost elections yet he gave the premiership to a party that got 39 seats, down 22 from their last result. Not to the victors - the left coalition, not to his party or to nationalist. The guys who came in fourth, somehow. How's that supposed to even work ? I guess they must have parliament unable to declare no confidence in the cabinet.
Considering the trend of the last hundred years, I'd call it 'normal'.
Democracy means less and less, people can vote on things but not on the things that matter.
More options
Context Copy link