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 -
There is a lot of space in there. Basically every ethnic group does this, more or less. Under this definition, sponsoring scholarships and summer camps for Jewish students, or organizing a public Jewish celebration, is "ethnocentric," and so is waging race war to oppress the goyim. I am not going to accept you carefully crafting a definition that includes the former but which you can then immediately claim is endorsing the latter.
Our disagreement is not over whether TikTok should be banned for hosting anti-semitism: we both agree it shouldn't. Our disagreement is that I think Jews wanting to ban antisemitism is rational and understandable (if wrongheaded, because I lean towards free speech absolutism and I think it's neither beneficial nor productive to try to ban bigoted opinions), where you think Jews wanting to ban antisemitism is because they recognize the antisemites are right and they want to suppress the communications of their enemy in the race war.
"Many Jews are hypocritical and self-interested." Okay, no disagreement there. And? Again, I see selfish and unprincipled actors, you see a coordinated race war. Are black people who see white supremacy - and not just institutional, historical white supremacy, but intentional, coordinated white supremacy - in everything justified? Are radical feminists who see the hand of the Patriarchy in everything correct? Or are they both identifying genuine problems (there are a lot of people who don't like them and act against their interests) which they misdiagnose (therefore white people/men/Jews are out to get us).
More options
Context Copy link