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 -
Not really; despite protestations, even the blues' language betrays that they know they're the aggressors -- they call the reds "reactionaries", and in order for there to be a re-action, there must be a principal action.
Because they stand in the way of them amassing power for themselves at the cost of primarily red demographics. Blue tribe is a racial spoils system, it's minorities exploiting white guilt to grab as much unearned advantage for themselves as they can; it's women flying the flag of feminism to advantage themselves and disadvantage men. Anyone professing an interest in "fairness" and "justice" is either doing so cynically to cover for their own grasping hands, or naively having never examined the actual motivations of their peers or effects of their ideology.
Blue tribe ideology is the ideology of singling out one group, white straight men, and agreeing amongst themselves to appropriate and steal everything possible from that group and divide it amongst themselves. Everything that comes after that is post-hoc justification as to why not only is this necessary, but a good thing -- but the fact remains, the base desire is simple looting for self-enrichment.
The culture war exists for the same reason all war exists; person A wants what person B has, and has decided to take it via force.
More options
Context Copy link