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 -
I don't understand your incredulity. "Not participating in or watching high school sports" describes half my high school - every once in a while the principal would beg people to come to games, but few showed up. While you're going to have to do some sports in PE, you can basically brush it off and half-heartedly sort of participate. Even the fitness exams aren't really pushed any more, they'll do them but no one is even mildly criticized for a poor score.
The "picking up your sister" thing is itself complicated by the fact that women are on average heavier than before. Sure, even a fairly weak man could pick up a thin woman, but you try and pick up someone who weighs 250lbs while also having weak arms. This is complicated by the fact that people assortively interact and date, so a boy who doesn't exercise is likely to spend time with girls who don't exercise. Does it only count as an "interaction" if you're wrestling, or something?
Playful roughhousing is also much less common, especially cross-gender. I had female friends in school, but there was never any sort of "playful touching" of the sort you apparently imagine would uncover physical strength differences like a revelation from Mount Sinai. There might be a playful poke or a shove, but never from the male side; the "men are stronger than women" truth has decayed, but the "men don't hit women" truth abides, even though large numbers of people couldn't explain why - maybe something to do with the patriarchy or domestic violence statistics?
As for the sex part... well, we've already litigated that a thousand times. Personally I think a huge portion of the romance crisis is due to men and women being much less fit than in the past, and therefore not finding each other particularly attractive. You can notice that in how men seem to recoil as from a snake when you suggest dating a fat chick. We even had one user with a pathological complex about ending up with a wildly obese woman: it was literally the worst thing he could imagine. If we're all being honest with each other, I think we've located the male ick.
You describe this as insane and pathological, but this describes a large set of younger generations. However little you might think the zoomers are working out and roughhousing, I assure you they're doing less. There's obviously a prescriptive angle you can take on this, but as a description of experience it rings completely true to me.
More options
Context Copy link