Y'all must be trying to kill me. The sheer volume of quality contribution reports, combined with the outrageous volume of text you maniacs generate every week, made this an astonishing month to be sorting through the hopper. By far the busiest month for AAQCs since I took over the task. This made winnowing them down especially challenging, and some very good posts simply didn't make the cut simply because the competition was so fierce.
Good job, everyone.
This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).
As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.
These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful. Here we go:
Quality Contributions in Culture Peace
@problem_redditor:
Contributions for the week of September 26, 2022
Battle of the Sexes
@problem_redditor:
@Ben___Garrison:
Contributions for the week of October 3, 2022
Identity Politics
Contributions for the week of October 10, 2022
Battle of the Sexes
Identity Politics
Contributions for the week of October 17, 2022
Identity Politics
Contributions for the week of October 24, 2022
Battle of the Sexes
@cae_jones:
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Notes -
Is “colonizer” a slur? It targets a specific culture, and regardless of any attempts at reclamation, is usually pretty damn derogatory. Users regularly using this word are strong signs that a certain group isn’t wanted. It’s obviously usable as a slur.
Now, is it as offensive as the usual suspects? I don’t think so. Whether rational or not, the average, politically-neutral American has a stronger response to “n-----“. That’s partly historical context and partly suspicion of trolls, who rally towards the most visible source of offense.
I think the same goes for most of the left-aligned slurs. They fit the criteria but lack the same emotional valence or history, even to a hypothetical neutral observer. All the “strongest” slurs are more taboo on the left than the right.
Fair enough. I certainly can’t endorse a particular acceptable/unacceptable split, nor can I claim that the proverbial normie is making a reasoned decision.
My contention boils down to a lack of strategy. I think certain slurs would end up right-coded even if no one involved was acting strategically. This is due to the existing coalitions and their stated differences on factors like personal responsibility, free speech, and the concept of taking offense.
The idea that leftist generate/treadmill more low-grade slurs is interesting. It strikes me as intuitively correct, and I’d read it as downstream of those same coalitions. A norm that taking offense is valid would be expected to do so?
Maybe my wording wasn’t clear.
Given that leftists tend to consider “taking offense” a valid response, not to be strictly scrutinized, I’d expect more offense to be taken. That seems like it might generate new reasons on its own.
The converse is that right-wingers are more likely to disparage such reactions, self-limiting the number they actually generate.
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