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 -
Is gun violence a "problem"? Yes.
Is gun violence a problem worth losing sleep over? Not in the least. The numbers don't allow it.
The majority of those who die from it die at their own hands, with a gun in their mouth. A large chunk of the remainder are ganbangers who are busy killing each other.
Avoiding a few neighborhoods largely insulates you from any serious risk. I have no plans on working in an inner city ER if I can help it, and I can help it.
Is that a serious barrier to anyone not living off food stamps? You can just drive across state borders the few times this is a concern.
I'm simply built different. Semi-unironically. I know how to operate a gun, and I'm confident in my ability to be friendly and charming to win over anyone who isn't a card-carrying KKK member.
(Nor am I a Hindu, if one is allowed to shed the religion of one's ancestors)
In most plausible worlds, we can afford health insurance. In the rest, we can fly to neighboring countries like Mexico to get a sweet 80-90% off.
More of you guys should try it, at least for conditions where you don't need constant ongoing care or acute emergencies.
Like you said, it's a trivial problem to insulate ourselves from most of America's problems while enjoying the benefits.
Now, if only there was a way to live in the Bay Area without fighting junkies and opioid zombies..
Coming from a Southerner in a medium-sized college town, I think your impression is pretty spot on and if I had dictatorial powers you and the GF would have a green card yesterday, instead of my annoying third worlder south Asian (from where and how they got papers, I have no clue; I'm guessing it has something to do with the local university) upstairs neighbors who don't grasp basic concepts like "Don't do your laundry in the bathtub, leak water all over the place, and fuck up my ceiling.". You and the girlfriend (She could bond with the car-hating ex-pat professor from the UK.) would do well socially at the bar I work at and I'm sure that the local hospital or doc-in-a-box could use your help if you're not inclined toward opening up your own practice.
I'm drunk and not overly energetic at the moment but I'll say a few things: Concerning gun homicides, you're absolutely correct. It's a non-issue outside of a few hotspots if you're not an underclass criminal type or suicidal. Concerning abortion, Plan B is like $20 at Walmart, and if you fuck that up Illinois isn't that far away; it isn't as if abortions were overly accessible within Alabama to begin with. As for food, if you can cook or like lowbrow American cuisine (which includes Americanized Chinese and Mexican, maybe a Thai or Indian place if you're lucky.) you're fine. Otherwise, good luck and don't expect to find good Italian food here.
When you coup the capital, I'll be wiring you five dollars for moral support haha.
One of the chief drawbacks of recognizing the stochastic and uncaring nature of the universe is that I have no one to blame for my plight. I'd never have thought that a tiny checkbox next to my med school's name on a directory of medical schools would have locked me into the current trajectory of my life.
I'm unusually unlucky, at least in this one regard. I've very blessed in others!
I like my Italian food hot, greasy, and in large quantities. I hope my standards are low enough that I can bear it haha.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I'm honestly not sure if this is a joke or not. But if it isn't: you don't have to do anything special to avoid that in the Bay Area. If you're in the areas frequented by street homeless people, there's a lot more of them than there were a decade or two ago, but you can just ignore them.
On the other hand, the cost of living compared to the salaries in the Bay Area seems like a pretty bad deal, so I wouldn't recommend living there if you don't have a good reason to do so.
I used to be homeless, smack dab in the Bay Area. If you don't want to worry about security or law enforcement sweeping you off the streets, you can move nearer to a homeless encampment and buy yourself time before you setup your next box to curl up in elsewhere, 'if' you're willing to tolerate junkies and opioid addicts. But at that point, you're trading one risk assessment for another. That said, I definitely agree with your last statement.
More options
Context Copy link
I could be succumbing to bad advertising myself, not that I seriously think you need to go out with a spiked baseball bat to get your groceries. California still looks like a great place to live, and I for one hope I don't need to rely on public transport where the worst happens.
I do think it does still have a serious homeless and junkie problem (which largely overlap).
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
The nearest abortion clinic to the actually populated parts of Texas is in Kansas. This is a 6-7 hour drive from one of Texas' main population centers and a 10+ hour drive from the other two. That's the high water mark for difficulty getting an abortion; a three day round trip(one for each leg plus a day to actually get the abortion) from Houston(Americans would drive that distance, although they'd fly if going to New Mexico instead because Texas' population centers have reliable air service there, so you could substitute airfare to Santa Fe or Albuquerque one a two day trip). And of course even when abortions were widely available in Texas, they weren't exactly free here, so you'd add in another thousand dollars. A thousand dollars, plus 1-2 nights in a hotel(women seeking abortions are not going to sleep on the streets, even if they can get away with it), plus either air fare to New Mexico or gas to Kansas, plus missing time at work- you'd exclude a pretty substantial chunk of the working class from being able to get abortions even allowing for their credit limits.
Now in other states which have banned abortion things are substantially easier for poor-but-not-impoverished women, although if they miss their window under state law in eg Florida they might be somewhat harder.
(Nor am I a Hindu, if one is allowed to shed the religion of one's ancestors)
I won't dispute your self assessment, although unless you convert to Christianity rednecks will probably reckon you a Hindu despite your lack of belief or practice.
Yes, you can afford health insurance on a doctor's salary, and if you work for a hospital can afford really comprehensive health insurance. It's still probably more expensive than you'd expect even if you come out ahead on the whole compared to Britain.
You are of course correct about gun violence; don't stick one in your mouth or head into the neighborhoods the locals tell you to avoid and you'll almost certainly be fine.
I could have sworn that I wrote a lengthy post in response, but I'm already sleep deprived so it could all have been a dream.
Thank you for elaborating, I didn't consider there were actually some parts where abortion did get that difficult to come by.
I'm all for abortion rights, so far in fact that even some abortion rights activists would run screaming in terror. So you can imagine I sympathize with their plight, while still thinking that it's unlikely to be an issue for me and mine.
For anything not acute or that didn't need ongoing care, I'd fly to another country and get it done cheaper. Mexico is quite literally across the border.
If it was a more intensive issue, then I'd just move to a place where it was cheaper for the interim.
Makes little difference to me since I don't think they're being malicious. I don't think the initial barriers will persist when they see that we share some common interests, and I think at one point they'd be calling their buddies over to get a load of this funny Indian dude who knows about guns and how to shoot them.
This is probably correct if your self assessment is accurate.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link