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 -
This one kinda hit tho ngl
Top level posts really should have more effort put into them, but yeah it also squares with my own experience. The most fervent liberals I have seen in real life are the white boomers/Gen Xers in my organisation, who are so intent on their commitment to progressive ideology that they will wax lyrical about representation in their organisation and complain about how Trump is a slippery slope towards dictatorship every two weeks in front of the entire office (as a matter of fact, at the time of writing this I have just got off work after being forced to sit through one such diatribe).
Their viewpoints are so ridiculously canalised they can't even entertain how anybody in the organisation could ever possibly disagree with them on good-faith grounds. To them, it's just Being A Good Person, and the fact that the majority of America voted for Literally Hitler isn't something they can reconcile. They need a form of validation to cushion their own sense of self, and the establishment news media is there to provide them a comforting blanket that can shield them from the ugly realisation that they failed to win hearts and minds, that they are out of touch with what matters to the majority of people.
It’s just crazy to me how the left, which was the party of LSD, get us out of vietnam, hippy living is now the party of:
Ukraine proxy war, big pharma propaganda campaigns, giant national debt (which directly moons home prices)…
Tell me more about how you toured the US in a school bus for 6 years, went to Woodstock, lived on an avocado farm, and then bought your first home with your seasonal earnings
AFAICT, the hippies and their ideological descendants have convinced themselves that the quasi-commies are their best allies against the crypto-fascists and predatory capitalists who, as they imagine, directly oppose them.
idunno if this even exists at a meaningful scale, Hippies were all about free love and radical acceptance of others. Free love, the idea that fucking whoever you want to is fun and healthy and something only prudes get upset over, has fallen pretty far out of favor (probably for the best) and instead the left scrutinizes power dynamics and racial biases in sexual preferences (probably not helping anybody)
Radical acceptance has likewise given way to oppression power level science which i'm sure we can all agree is fun for everyone involved.
The most direct ideological descendants of the hippies i know of are the "rainbow family", which , surprisingly, arent all gay people. Theyre a group of turbo wooks that try as hard as possible to make burningman style commune parties across the country and "ban" the use of money at their communes. I don't think they have any pull in leftist political circles.
Hm. Germany is probably simply behind the curve, then. I'll grant that the identifiable latter-day hippies are almost all pretty damn old by now.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
The hippies were always quasi-commies when they weren't actual commies, were they not?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link