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 -
Again, the actual quote was "Why should there be a special rule re influencing the perception of children towards the LGBT movement?", the answer to that is that there's a certain type of beliefs that should not be taught in schools, like for example religion, hence my response "For the same reason there's a special rule re 'influencing the perception of children towards Jesus Christ being our lord and savior'". You could have asked me at any point what those reasons are, but instead you chose to argue about how that's different because that rule is in the Constitution, as if that answers the question.
That's false. The issue people are having with trans stuff is that it is being taught as fact right now, not that people are advocating for it.
You're splitting hairs. Sure, I guess Muslims, Christians, Jews, Nazis, Communists, free market advocates, people who want to teach hostility to homosexuality, and Queer Theory believers, should be allowed to advocate for their views to be taught as fact- in the sense they should not be arrested for marching in the streets and petitioning the government to do so, but I also believe that the answer should always be "no". That kind of hollows out the whole "advocacy" bit for me, which is why I boiled it down to "shouldn't be allowed to advocate for", but again, maybe you see some substance in the distinction, in which case, I am again happy for you.
I doubt you come off as actually trying to get to the truth of things either.
You too!
More options
Context Copy link