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 -
The dems offer a lot: student loan forgiveness, healthcare reform, housing reform, etc. It's just the handouts are not as effective at winning votes.
Sure, but they’ve been offering that kind of thing for decades and it hasn’t happened and voters have internalized that.,
ACA and The Biden-Harris Administration's Student Debt Relief Plan
sure, it's not the same as single payer and free college for all, but it's something
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Do they? One of my major disappointments with the Democratic party since Obama's election is that there has been very little talk about implementing nationalized healthcare beyond what the ACA accomplished. Pre-ACA, the thought among much of the left was that it was to be a wedge in an effort to keep the door to just full on nationalized healthcare. At the very least, it seems that that step was indeed effectively irreversible so far, with not a whole lot effort that I can see from Republicans trying to roll it back. But neither have Democrats been trying to push that ratchet further. If Kamala ran on socialized healthcare or other forms of significant healthcare reform, she didn't do a good job of advertising it.
I'm also not really aware of Democrats making much noise in terms of housing reform. Given how locally Democrat-controlled areas tend not to have the best reputation in terms of accomplishing lower housing costs, I'm not sure they have much credibility for it, either.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link