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's certainly one partial cause of their malady, but hardly the only one.
IMO it's important to keep in mind that the vilification of all things right-wing is probably stronger in Germany than in any other democratic country in the world. By far. By orders of magnitude. I suppose I needn't explain why or how. The German moral compass consists of "nazi" on one end and "good" on the other, and any political activity will attempt to place itself right on the good end, moving away from it only so far as practicality demands, and such practicality must always be accompanied either by a certain amoral or asocial streak, or by extensive burden of justification.
What this means is that it's trivially easy to just be an uncritical, perfectly fanatical, purity-spiralling ever-more-extreme leftist in Germany, and even in establishment Germany. By being maximally distant from the moral pole of all evil, and pushing further away from it, you automatically have the moral high ground and you can rightly consider yourself beyond reproach, and no reproach will come to you from polite society.
This in turn has the consequence of the left being absolutely loony, and there being no mechanism to reign it in. And naturally this effect is strongest in the nominal Left party, Die Linke.
In my view that's the strongest cause for their misfortunes - their increasing disjunction from reality, which can only increase over time due to the German moral compass.
Unrelated: The German right is also insane, also due to this moral compass, but in different ways. It takes madmen to go and occupy the moral pole of all evil.
More options
Context Copy link