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 -
What I like most in this one is FBI dressing Twitter down for not giving them enough fodder for their narrative of foreign government constantly attacking the US democracy over social media and heroic efforts necessary to combat this imaginary onslaught. Even Roth is kinda taken aback - he thought less foreign meddling would be good? Looks like he still didn't get the game - it's not about achieving some end goal, it's about establishing control. Oceania has always been, and will always be, at war with Eastasia. Foreign governments has always meddled and will always meddle, and always require heroic censors to stand in their way. And if to prove that you need to mine 10-follower accounts for ancient jokes about Wednesday elections - then so be it.
It's the same in offline world btw - how many "plots" turned out to be constructed by the FBI out of the whole cloth recently? That's what happens when you corrupt the watchdogs.
When it was first reported, it was "libelous accusations without any proof, we won't lower ourselves to discuss such baseless rumors". When the proofs started appearing later, it's "old news, everybody knew that, we already discussed it years ago, nothing to discuss here, move on already!". Simple trick, but surprisingly effective.
More options
Context Copy link