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 was tempted to join the other commenters in replying directly to Lepidus about why their post was wrong and offensively misguided, but I'll just springboard off of your comment instead:
The conflict between America and China is not racial at all. It is, rather, down to culture and government. As you note, Chinese tend to be competitive, self-serving (where possible/convenient), but also subservient. Probably the biggest argument against this being a "racial" conflict is that, as you get at in your parenthetical, once you take the Chinese out of China, you pretty much also take the China out of the Chinese (to an extent). Someplace like America is still pretty damn competitive, but it's also a much more relaxed environment compared to the earlier People's Republic or the older Empire. It's in a place like America, with all the slack afforded by the general material wealth and opportunity, where you see the Chinese get ahead because the competitive spirit still persists, but also there's less consequences for failure and less holding them back.
Insofar as this conflict is existential, I suppose it might be a general improvement for the world if all Chinese around the world behaved more like Chinese-Americans than Mainland Chinese, but that is a memetic battle that is far from decided.
More options
Context Copy link