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 -
"Gender ideology" is an old term that's common in global politics, generally associated with Catholic social activism. Though it might be interesting to note that the general line is not "there are two genders" but in fact "there are no genders", because opposition to it globally often holds that the concept of gender is itself an ideological imposition on biological sex. And if the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as the social justice movement would just give itself a name, politicians wouldn't have to use the term "woke" to specify it.
I don't think calling it "woke" has any meaningful advantage over calling it "social justice". Being cynical for a moment, I'm pretty sure that the main reason "social justice" fell out of favor and was replaced by "woke" is that low-information voters are actually stupid enough to fall for rhetorical shenanigans as basic as calling your movement "goodism", that is, they were uncomfortable speaking out against something called "social justice" because justice and being social are widely-agreed-upon virtues. By contrast, "woke", to an outsider, just sounds like a funny made-up word, a failure of grammar.
More options
Context Copy link
We’re going to have to link the Freddie Deboer article again aren’t we? Sidebar material!
Woke is a perfectly useful word. Everyone knows what it means even if some people pretend not to.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link