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 -
2012 is recent enough that the idea of having more non-white people on staff wasn't some fringe idea. Like, even in the mid-2000s as a kid, I earnestly believed that we needed to include non-white people in more media, and that was an idea given by my public education. Person of Interest started in 2011.
Sure, if you want to argue that there are now people very conscious about the race of the casts in the media they make, I won't argue that with you. But even Avengers: Endgame was written in 2015-2016, released in 2019, and still predominantly features a white cast with no backlash.
Like, people got more on their case for relegating an LGBT character to audio-only than they did the lack of racial diversity in the Avengers, and I don't see people turning on it more publicly or the MCU in general at this point.
It's not an all or nothing thing. The push for social justice casting is stronger now than it was ten years ago, even though it still existed to some extent ten years ago.
And Avengers: Endgame had a white cast for similar reasons to a TV show--the white actors were cast many years ago when there was much less social justice casting, and they're being played by the same actors now that they were played by back when they were cast.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link