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 -
It's too bad that Hlynka wasn't wise or willing enough to just go make fun of this place on rdrama.net like I do. He seemed to take this place way too seriously and to be fair, that is common, and I myself have taken it way too seriously at some times in the past. Most of us are not enlightened Buddhas, we need to blow off some steam sometimes and call those who disagree with us on here morons - but this is not the place to do it unless you are able and ready to do it in a way that comes just up to the threshold of getting modded without quite crossing over it. I agreed with Hlynka about little*, and I found his "I'm wiser than you because I've been in violent situations" attitude occasionally grating (I've been in violent situations too, man), but I couldn't help but respect his ability to rile people up, especially given that it helped to enliven a place where 90% of people largely agree with each other because the people who disagree with the dominant views here have either never heard of this place, ran away from here when they saw that bad no-no people are allowed to speak their minds here, or just got bored of arguing. He just couldn't help but to fly too close to the moderator sun over and over again. So I'm pouring out a beer to a real G. It will be fun to talk with him if/when he comes back under a new identity, but knowing his earnestness, he'd probably make it completely obvious and just get immediately banned again.
*I do certainly agree with him that the similarities between the woke left and the alt/dissident right deserve more attention.
I agree. I invite @HlynkaCG to join us over on rdrama.net . We even have high brow holes for conservatives who don't find /h/chudrama particularly appealing.
I mean, who doesn't appreciate posts like: All Hail Emperor Barbecue as Haiti's Prime Minister is forced to resign as gangster warlords raze half of parliament. "They are no doctors, they've all fled last week."
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link