site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025

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.

5
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

and currently am doing my PhD in Baltimore

Let's have some straight talk about the unspoken expectations of PhD and beyond.

Successfully finishing and defending your dissertation means very little if you haven't used your time while in the PhD program to establish a strong professional network. Without the latter, all you have is an extra line on your CV (or resume), and there are plenty of others out there with a similar or more impressive-sounding line in their CV. This is true even if you turn your dissertation into several publications, and even if those publications actually find readers beyond Reviewers #1 and #2. None of that is a substitute for a strong professional network.

Fortunately, building a strong professional network in graduate school coincides precisely with your desire for a community. Right now, you have fellow PhD students in relatively close physical proximity and in sufficiently close sub-fields / fields, pursuing similar-enough goals. All want to successfully complete their dissertations. All are working on something that (at least at the beginning) they found interesting. Quite a few of them will be your future professional colleagues. Building a strong professional network starts with organizing your fellow PhD students into a mutually supportive network.

Does your department have a weekly graduate student seminar, where grad students can present an interesting article or some partial progress on their dissertation? If yes, attend it and present in it, and hang out afterwards to casually discuss stuff with the presenter. If not, organize it. Ask your department head for pizza funds, chances are pretty good they'd be thrilled that someone is willing to take on the organizational task.

Are you in a program with too few grad students? Well, are there grad students in adjacent programs? It's very useful to be able to talk about your research to people outside of your field, and a bit of cross-discipline pollination goes a long way. Again, ask for pizza funds.

Have the seminar repeat at a regular time, so people get used to it being a thing. If weekly is too frequent, have it bi-weekly. Or first and third Thursday of the month. Invite undergrads that are heading into similar fields. Invite professors; quite a few appreciate the opportunity for low-stress chats about something in or close to their field. If there are local people in the industry that are relevant to your field, invite them too; industry people can bring boots-on-the-ground perspective that academics miss.

Do you or your fellow PhD students take classes? If yes, do they have informal study sessions? If yes, make a point to attend those. If no, organize one. It could start small: just you and one other student, and then make it generally known that others are welcome. Have it at a regular time and place, and be consistent about showing up.

Have you stopped by the office of every professor in your department to chat about their research? Do that. Ask also about the social aspects of their field: Where are the people who work in that field? Is it a more-or-less cohesive group, or are there rival factions? What conferences / forums do people in this field use to informally exchange ideas? Which journals do they value, and which are junk?

Are there local or regional conferences in your field? Do go to those. Preferably, organize some of your fellow PhD students to come with you. If there aren't... maybe there are, but you don't know it. Chat with your professors. Baltimore is plenty big, and it's close to so many other centers of academia.

And yes, by all means go running and attend church. Touch grass. Do what you need to keep healthy and grounded. But understand that, at this juncture, those are unlikely to be the communities that you'll keep.