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 -
They've been trying to do this for a while as you've noted. Fox News is essentially the last non-left source allowed on Wikipedia so the usual suspects continue to try to remove it. Glad to see Masem is still around as a sane voice. Don't think I could continue talking to brick walls as much as he has to. Thankfully it seems this time again they've tried to scrape the bottom of the barrel and been refuted multiple times throughout the RFC. Hopefully a decently neutral editor/admin comes in and shuts it down as no consensus.
See the full list of sources. Not only are all right-wing sources not listed fair game (even politically biased sources are explicitly allowed, see WP:PARTISAN), non-left-wing sources on that list listed as "generally reliable" include Reason, the WSJ, Deseret News, Financial Times, and Religion News Service. Non-left-wing sources listed as "no consensus", meaning they're usable based on context, include The Washington Times, The American Conservative, Washington Examiner, the Cato Institute, and National Review.
You are correct. I should have looked more closely. I'm probably focusing too hard on the edit wars that kept material from decent sources out of stuff in GG/Trump articles back when I paid more attention to the wiki stuff.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
That does sound like it's just delaying the inevitable, though, because this sounds like it's one of those gambler's-ruin/"vote until you vote right"/"you have to be lucky every time..." situations, where the choice is between "some irrevocable change to the status quo" and "keep the status quo [for now, until the next time we try to change it,]" and there's no penalty to the "wants irrevocable change" side for losing any given round. Statistically, the gambler will inevitably lose against the infinite-money house and that'll be the end of the game.
Such contests always seem unfair to me, but I don't see a clear, obvious, favorite alternative.
As with elections, a simple option is that once the matter is decided, it cannot be re-litigated for some fixed amount of time, like 4 years.
I imagine there would be community support for such a proposal because those discussions are exhausting for everyone.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link