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 -
My God, yes. I got so mad seeing the ~40k year old human fossils be buried. On the one hand, we're enlightened by science and we don't need this pesky Christianity anymore. On the other hand, give into (some of! not even all of them are calling for this!) the natives' homebrewed ideas about what belongs to whom and ancient customs and destroy priceless artifacts. Western civilization deserves to die if it's gonna be like this.
It seems like no country anywhere can stand up to indigenous peoples when they want something unreasonable. Even the Russians caved when it came to the Siberian Ice Queen. Look at this, too. Thirteen thousand year old kid. Modern Native Americans don't even have any more claim to that than we do, man. There's no way their cultures resemble each other at all at that point. And I don't see European natives kicking up a fuss that Otzi the Ice Man got dug up and put on display.
Holy fuck I hate Wikipedia
I don't get your point.
The wording is horrifically biased and self contradictory. How is the European heritage “supposed”? It was analyzed for their DNA and confirmed not to be Altai! Just emblematic of how terrible quality most articles on Wikipedia often are
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I’m sure you do.
This is still not the place for your Two Minute Hate. Put some more substance into it or keep it to yourself; I don’t care which.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link