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 agree with you for the most part, I'm just curious: why is your hypothetical rich liberal douchebag Jewish?
the first poster literally said
Eh, I read that as more "Whatever, I'm secular/atheist, and my background tradition is Jewish not Christian anyway". Not that he was going "damn Christians and the way they have persecuted Jews" or stuff.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I'm not the commenter, but it seems like Jews tend to hold the most animus toward Christians of all the groups except maybe those who actively broke with the faith.
More options
Context Copy link
He isn’t, but this piece specifically reads like the Jewish version of the rich liberal douchebag. The unprovoked attacks on supposed Christian hypocrisy, the elevation of telescopic philanthropy over normal human relational networks (at least for non-Jews), the empty moral preening.
He has a point on this though, while jesus "the son of god" talked a lot about feeding the hungry, loving the poor, and stuff along those lines, orthodox christians talk alot about.. gender roles and birth control.
We do that stuff with our churches and our own time, which was the actual point of the commands in question.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I would have guessed "atheist" more than "Jewish." In my experience, Jews (even of the self-righteous liberal douchebag variety) don't bash on Christianity per se nearly as much as atheists from a culturally Christian background do. They are particularly unlikely to write an essay like this full of Biblical allusions before the dig at church Christians. This was more like bashing on the near-group than the far/outgroup. So the random insertion of "Jewish" did seem like a Freudian tell.
The OP calls himself “a heeb”, so his Jewishness was made explicit and relevant by himself, not me.
More options
Context Copy link
I think he specifically is referring to atheist, culturally universalist / liberal jews with "jewish"
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link