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 -
"I want him to freely bleed in shark infested water, but not for sharks to feast on him."
Any sensible admission of past guilt is merely chuming the cancelation waters. I wish it wasn't so, but it is.
But he doesn't have moral guilt. Like I said, he just has to flatly state that he once believed one thing and now believes another. Hell, didn't Obama flirt with Marxism in college?
The kinds of people running cancellation campaigns do not see "flirting with Marxism" as a demerit.
Those are not the people who need to forgive Hanania. The people we need to forgive him are the Republicans in Conservatism Inc. Typically, they go along with left-wing cancellation campaigns, then brag about how much better than the left they are for ousting the "bigots" from their ranks, while still engaging with the bigots on the left. The smart people who do this like Ben Shapiro are acting in bad faith, but most Republicans are just too stupid to notice the contradiction on their own. If Hanania points it out, there's a chance some of them will get it. And we NEED conservatives to read his upcoming book. Mass awareness of Griggs v Duke is the key to getting it overturned, which is the key to defeating wokeness.
I have never seen or heard an intelligent comment come from Ben Shapiro. Why do you think he deserves to be listed as one of the "smart people"?
"He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2004, at age 20, with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in political science and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Afterwards, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2007 with a J.D., cum laude."
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Uh, Ben Shapiro has personal reasons for being very concerned about the right embracing old school racial doctrines.
Yeah, the reason is that the people paying him (the Kochs) tell him to care.
I know that you're implying it's because he's Jewish, but no smart person will believe that embodying all of the negative stereotypes about Jews is less likely to encourage anti-Semitism than allowing white people to have the same level of racial consciousness as Jews. I don't think most progressive Jews or cuckservative Jews no better, but Ben Shapiro and Jonathan Greenblatt do. That they behave in this manner anyway makes them a bigger threat to the Jewish people than to the white race, not that they're friendly to either. They care about their own career and nothing more.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
The problem with Griggs is that disparate impact can be discrimination as not permitted. For example, assume UNC wanted to continue to practice AA. They could pick a random attribute (eg single parenthood) that correlates with being black and provide a bonus for that. The goal is to find a facially neutral category but one you know isn’t in fact evenly distributed.
The problem with Griggs v. Duke is that idea that any disparate outcome against minorities shifts the burden of proof to “there is discrimination.”
Under current law, the right question is “does this policy have a truly reasonable relation to the X it is measuring.” So an IQ test for an intellectually challenging job? It has a reasonable relation and therefore the disparate impact is irrelevant. If on the other hand some firm institutes some policy about giving preferences in difficult jobs to people whose parents received SNAP benefits then that would be discrimination.
This of course assumes the government should even give one iota about discrimination by non government companies. But my suggestion deals with the statute as-is.
The idea that disparate impact is something we need to look out for is what created wokeness.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
Bleeding in shark infested waters. I wish it wasn't so.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link