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 -
Meat, good for you? Probably. It's very nutrient rich, and the dangers lie in overdoing it or going for red meat or processed forms (at least when it comes to colon cancer).
I don't know if pea protein is bad, for some reason, and I remain unconvinced about the recent hubbub over seed oils.
I will find it hard to be convinced that the 27-ingredient hyper processed slurry being sold as a ‘burger’ is as good for you as either a steak or some good old rice and beans, but it’s fairly plausible that it’s not worse for you than a Big Mac.
It seems to me that the most replicable finding in nutrition science is that extremely processed foods(like soyrizo or the impossible burger, although also candy, Cheetos, hot dogs, Diet Coke, etc) are very bad for you, but that it’s impossible to define ‘processed foods’ well enough to cover the options and only the options. With that in mind I think we should be very cautious about vegan meat substitutes being healthy.
I suspect that it is not so much "processing" (why would blending up pork scraps and extruding them into a sausage shape change the nutrition) but specifically preservatives which are bad over time. Unfortunately, preservatives are usually introduced into processed foods to make them more consistent and less prone to spoilage, making them cheaper as well.
This seems plausible but IIRC there’s some noticeable trend discontinuities on it. Not sure though so don’t quote me.
In any case I suspect mass market vegan ‘meat’ will have even more preservatives than sausages and cheap ground beef do today.
Ground beef has preservatives? I had a quick look and I couldn't find any ground beef sold that contained anything else than literally ground beef.
Or do you mean ground beef products, like premade hamburgers?
I mean ground beef products and was using a catch all term for, like, McDonald’s hamburger Patties and stuff. Although, considering you’re in the EU, American food might have lots of preservatives yours doesn’t.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link