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 -
From /r/fednews: "Supervisor told us to stop posting on Reddit: We just had a meeting about employees posting memos and meeting topics on Reddit and were told to stop “leaking” information. DONT STOP, the people deserve to know the information." With 69k net upvotes.
It's an incredible bubble that federal employees live in. A big hurdle for the right is that there was plausible deniability, and the Deep State was considered a conspiracy theory. /r/fednews is directly showing that it's worse than even the conspiracy. "Yes, the Deep State is real, and it's a bunch of anti-American commies undermining everything." Keep resisting kids!
Send out memos to your employees, but each one has a small unique change. Immediately know which one of them put it on reddit.
There are (unfounded?) rumors that my employer adds digital watermarks to some internal documents and they'll know you leaked if a journalist has your document. I'm rather skeptical but it doesn't matter because I'm not going to violate my NDA.
To me, the workaround generally seems to be to compare your version of the document with that of a colleague. If it is identical, then there is nothing to indicate which of you leaked it. Otherwise, one might create two lossy versions which are indistinguishable.
(In general, you could add more complex watermarks, where any k copies would have bits which are the same for all of them, but used for watermarking outside their group. That would enable you to tell "Bob, Alice and Eve conspired to scramble all the bits which were different in their respective copies." However, once the conspirators know what kind of features you are using for watermarks, they could just use a technique which adds enough noise to the document to generally smear out the watermarks everywhere.)
Not breaking NDAs (unless you feel you have a strong civic obligation to do otherwise) is probably wise.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Yeah, I just don’t understand the mindset that “my boss told me to stop posting private information on social media, so I’m doubling down.” No business im aware of would not fire you instantly if you get caught. Hell Walmart employees got fired for pointing out how hard it is for someone to get accidentally locked in an oven. But of course they see themselves as above laws and rules and so they have a right to break any laws they please. They see themselves as untouchable priests of the global order, and they seem to honestly believe that there are no consequences to those actions.
You’re right, but the federal government is not a business. It has special rules and laws it has to follow that private businesses don’t. The key sections of law here are 5 U.S.C. §2301-§2306 and 5 U.S.C. §7511-§7515 if you want to get a feel for what the administration is going up against, but there are reams and reams of rules like this.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link