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 -
A similar sentiment has been on my mind for the last few weeks as well. I was sitting around listening to music one day and just thought about the last two or three years of my life and how bizarre that period of time was. In real time we saw media conglomerates shape how millions of people thought and behaved, saw western democratic leaders reveal themselves to be authoritarians, forced millions of other people to get vaccines against their will, and now, just a couple years later, all pretend as if none of it ever happened at all. Trudeau recently came out at a press conference and explained how he never "actually" forced anyone to get the vaccine, and just "put the incentives" in front of them. Leaders of developed countries literally gaslighting the population. The worst part about it is that eventually everyone will believe that as well.
I don’t think most of it was that new. We’ve had a full century of practice at manufactured consent and manufactured responses. George Orwell was talking about it in 1984, and Aldous Huxley talked about it in Brave New World. The COVID response mostly revealed that fact to the public, or at least those able to grasp it without falling for various conspiracy theories. Mass media has always been like this and is still like this, the idea of news as the first draft of history has always been a bit of propaganda as they’re not really giving history in an honest way but the first draft of narrative. They’re writing the stuff as they want it remembered, as the cathedral wants future generations to think about it.
You've got to mention Walter Lippmann and his 1922 book Public Opinion
That makes it 101 years, justifying the full century rhetoric :-)
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link