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 -
Racism is simply not well-defined. Let's say for example that a person usually genuinely tries to judge black people as individuals rather than making assumptions about their behavior based on the fact that they are black. But this same person, being aware of racial crime statistics, also crosses the street when he sees groups of young black men hanging out outside stores. Not out of any hate toward black people, but just because to him his personal safety is more important than trying to always judge people as individuals.
Is this person racist or not? I would say no, but there are others who would say yes.
Do I think that BAP usually genuinely tries to judge black people as individuals rather than making assumptions about their behavior based on the fact that they are black? No, I do not. I have not read much of BAP's stuff, but based on what I have read he pattern-matches, to me, to people who generally tend to be racists even by my definition. So yeah, I am ok with saying that he is probably a racist, by my definition of the word.
I think that probably everyone or almost everyone at least to some degree stereotypes others based on what ethnic groups they belong to. To me one of the main things that makes someone a racist by my definition of the word is that rather than seeing this stereotyping as an unfortunate but inevitable result of the fact that we all have limited knowledge of other people and limited cognitive resources to devote to evaluating other people, he valorizes the stereotyping as a good thing.
More options
Context Copy link