site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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.

8
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Well I was an atheist for most of my youth. I've said the story here a few times but... basically I had a really tough experience with Buddhism. Studied it very deeply for over a decade, then had a destabilizing anatta or no-self experience.

Long story short, events in my life made me think more deeply about Christianity, I went to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and it blew me away. I kept struggling with it, and here 2 years later I'm about to get baptized.

In terms of communism, I was a fairly standard college communist. Started studying history and philosophy, and began to realize how horribly wrong things had gone in the past with communism. That changed my mind over time.

I went to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and it blew me away.

Yep. That first Latin Mass (or Chuch Slavonic for the Orthdox homies) gets you all fired up to retake the holy land.

I never went full retard atheist, but definitely drifted for a big part of my 20s. I am 100% convinced that this was because I grew up in a Novus Ordo setting. Latin Mass is beauty, strength, and Truth.

Latin Mass is beauty, strength, and Truth.

Interesting, do you have a functional understanding of Latin, or is the ritual more important than the message?

You get a latin-english and follow along. The good ones have kneel/stand/sit directions. This creates an understanding of the Mass in Latin, though it would be inaccurate to say you have any real control of the language. Prayers in Latin help as well.

The ceremony is so much better. A big issue with Novus Ordo masses is that they have an odd 1970s folk musical esthetic. Acoustic guitars and piano. "Hymns" that are woo-woo and highly emotive. Combine this with an all around casual disposition - A lot of altarboys don't actually know the order of mass and respond to subtle cues from the priest.

At a good Latin Mass, especially a High Latin Mass, all of the altarboys have been drilled on the order of mass and know their movements to a "T." It's a similar vibe, in my opinion, to a silent drill platoon. The garments are more elaborate and so it conveys a deeper seriousness to everything.

or is the ritual more important than the message?

Always had been.

Church Latin is not language spoken of streets of first and second century Rome. It is much older, it is formal ritual religious language used in Roman worship long before Christianity.

Christians saw no problem in appropriating this pagan language to worship Christ, just as later, when they had power to do it, eagerly reused old pagan temples as churches.

See work of Christine Mohrmann

Of course, this is historical detail you will learn only on obscure traditional Catholic places, because it torpedoes the whole purpose of Second Vatican council. The liturgy was never meant to be "vernacular", comprehensible to the ordinary plebs.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150912021156/http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/mohrmann-1.html