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 -
That was not my claim.
My claim was :
Choosing to become a money-lender does indicate something about the character of an individual, that they choose wealth over reputation.
For example Sam Bankman-Fried chose wealth / power over reputation.
They could have. Or simply 'being wealthy is not worth having a whole village/town hate me and my family'.
It's a choice that individuals have made in history. The ones that were spectacularly successful with that strategy (avoided the pitchforks) ended up migrating all over the world it turns out, and now they are in charge of the Western world's media and academia and telling me that I shouldn't dislike them for being money-lenders.
That's the thing with greed, it gives you power.
There are no fat people that got so fat that they managed to take over society and tell everyone else : 'you're not allowed to tell me to go on a diet!'
And if you tell me, but not all Jews are money-lenders.
That's true. But the people that claim to speak on behalf of groups of or all Jews (the ADL, the World Jewish Congress, etc) never disavow money-lenders.
If you don't want me to believe that most if not all Jews support greedy money-lenders who push for open-border propaganda, feminism (contraception, anti-family policies, promiscuity) etc, then show me these groups of Jews who disavow them!
Very much so. If a Japanese woman told me that she stays away from white Americans due to the crime rate of American servicemen, I would understand.
More options
Context Copy link