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 -
True, but it sounds like what Innuendo is driving at is the asymmetry of the power differential. You can induce a panic attack in me by pointing a gun at me (or any other of a long list of things which the average person can reasonably be expected to find upsetting), and I can do the same to you - it's perfectly symmetrical. But if I've gone through a traumatic experience that you know about, you can induce a panic attack in me by doing something far less overtly threatening than pointing a gun at me: say, telling a rape joke in my presence. Whereas if I tell a rape joke in your presence, it will have no effect on you. Between us, "jokes involving rape" are assymetric weapons.
Moreover, if you threaten me with a gun you may face legal repercussions (or at the minimum a drop in social standing, if I garner a reputation as a dangerous person), but if you tell a rape joke in my presence, it may have no impact on your social standing at all, while having a devastating impact on my mental health. (Now that I think about it, this may be what woke people were driving at with the whole "microaggressions" discourse.)
In practice I don't think it's anything like as black-and-white as this. Not everyone who's been raped and thinks that trigger warnings are a reasonable accommodation is going to reliably have a full-blown panic attack every time they hear someone tell a joke involving rape, and plenty of people who are opposed to trigger warnings on principle will nevertheless find themselves getting extremely upset about something much less overtly threatening than having a gun pointed at them. Once you know someone well enough, you can push their buttons in all sorts of subtle ways that wouldn't necessarily strike an outside observer as obviously cruel or abusive.
More options
Context Copy link