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‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#501

Post by throwaway2245 »

crazygringo wrote: post #229
k__ wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the impression, that the center is exactly the problem because it's always looking away. Hook-theory, etc.

You mean "fish hook theory", the idea that centrism is somehow inherently ideologically aligned with the far right? AFAIK that's simply a fantasy promoted in certain corners of the internet (like the ironically-named r/EnlightenedCentrism). It's not supported by any actual quantitative evidence at all, nor am I aware of any credence given to it in academia. It's essentially made-up. There is no political scientist I'…

The Martin Luther King quote that begins: "I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate," should be read in full.

If you define a centrist as someone who finds the status quo a reasonable compromise,

and you recognise that the history of the United States (among others) and its status quo is infused with white supremacy,

then it's unsurprising that a self-declared "centrist" would often hold views that more closely align with the right-wing than the left.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#502

Post by bootlooped »

cortesoft wrote: post #415
alex_c wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wish I had a way to block Twitter from my life completely. I don't even use it, but I wish for an AdBlock-like tool that would: - block Twitter content in news articles - block links to articles with Twitter content from ever being shown to me in the first place Most news articles provide little value to my life anyway, but I don't think I've ever read an article referencing Twitter quotes that was worthw…

Twitter links on my phone never work... i will click on the link to a tweet, and then it will just say "failed to load content" So I guess I somehow do block twitter?

I get this a lot and not just on my phone. What is wrong with their site?

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#503

Post by KaiserPro »

another-dave wrote: post #56

I think the main culprit exacerbating this is the main stream media. "Vox pops" have formed part of filling air-time or column inches for a long while, but this is largely replaced now by journalists looking at Twitter and either a) using that as a stand-in for 'this is what the public think' or b) making it the story itself. Social media is no longer just "second screen" below-the-line commenting on events, it's hel…

> I think the main culprit exacerbating this is the main stream media.

Much as this is reassuring, its not the whole story.

Yes, the "MSM", well parts of them report chaff because its cheap.

But why bother? because it sells.

In some cases there are editors that push a certain stance or opinion. even more rare are the cases where they manage to actually shift a section of society's world view permanently.

The problem is perfectly illustraited by the german newspaper "DER SPIEGEL" it literally means "the mirror"

Both social, print and to a lesser extent tv news(the uk is highly regulated) are a mirror on society.

They push what sells, and if its comfortable lies, then it so be it.

So no, the main problem is not "the media" its us for consuming shit.

If we stop reading gossip, junk and "punditry" then they'll stop making it. Its as simple as that.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#504

Post by iguy »

ineedasername wrote: post #450
rayiner wrote: post #4

I like the More in Common Project. But it overlooks the disproportionate representation of the extremists in our institutions. This happened at my alma matter earlier this year: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator... . They also voted to abandon entrance exams at my magnet high school: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4979 It’s not comforting to know that only a tiny minority of people a…

That school appears to be abandoning the exam in favor of GPA. I certainly don't know their own data on the utility of the test vs. GPA in predicting student success, but I do know that data with respect to college admissions: HS GPA is consistently as good or slightly better than standardized test scores. Even if the balance is tilted the other way for this particular magnet school, it's quite inflammatory to claim…

> but I do know that data with respect to college admissions: HS GPA is consistently as good or slightly better than standardized test scores.

The data I've seen says the reverse, that SAT is a better predictor than GPA, but both together contain more information.

https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview...

> then more energy should be spent on expanding those same opportunities to a greater number of people, not worrying about the speculative incremental decline in quality that might be incurred when switching from one set of entrance criteria to another.

Making all schools better is a noble goal. But I thought the point of selective magnet schools was largely to gather selected students in one place. It's not so much that you give superior teachers to some, it's that a whole class of kids who are all into math (or whatever) can be taught more, faster, than an average class.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#505

Post by klipt »

ardy42 wrote: post #422
klipt wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google trends for "black lives matter" searches peak in 2016 and 2020. The media only brings it up in election years, even though police brutality happens every year.

> The Google trends for "black lives matter" searches peak in 2016 and 2020. The media only brings it up in election years, even though police brutality happens every year. That's correlation, not causation. Even if there's a connection to election years, the causality could very well be reversed (e.g. activists increase their efforts to get attention when it matters most). However, I'm inclined to think your observa…

Let's see if there's another peak in 2024 then.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#506

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

tshaddox wrote: post #438
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, it seems these 13% receive outsize political attention as well. I recall at the run up to the 2016 election, one of the main issues was gender and public bathroom usage. I couldn't help wondering at the time why that issue received so much attention vs. the 42,000 opioid overdose fatalities that year alone, which got virtually zero attention.

I don't think it's wise to make some guesstimates about the number of people who will be directly affected by each policy, then sort all policies by that number descending, and then expect or hope that only the top N policies on that list receive political attention. For one thing, guesstimating the number of affected people is pretty subjective. A policy can be important to me even though it does not nominally affec…

What is very interesting to me is that there are large groups that are underserved, even suffering, that have no voice. Yet the current administration identifies the situation and corrects it, winning over a significant number of voters.

The first example that comes to mind is US armed service veterans. Apparently, the medical care they received from the Veteran's Administration was really terrible, with apocryphal stories of veterans dying while waiting for appointments to see Drs. There were many bad actors in the VA medical service who would have been fired in any other organization but due to VA policy, kept their jobs. Through programs such as VA Choice and VA Accountability[0], the approval rating of the VA jumped to 91%, a record.

In the US, there are 17.4 million veterans, and as you indicated, they all have family and friends who are going to see these improvements in a positive light.

It makes me wonder how many other situations there are like this that we don't hear about.

On the other end, the president can pardon one person at a time. Perhaps that's the least number of people who can be positively affected by one act.

[0] https://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/documents/choice-act-summar...

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#507

Post by taxcoder »

Miner49er wrote: post #163
dTal wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not even slightly what "racist" means, though. The accepted term for what you are describing is "privileged". If you're going to assert that every white person is "racist" regardless of their beliefs, you render the term meaningless and might as well just say "white".

Well, I said "most". I was a bit wrong. It's not just benefiting from racism that makes you racist by the definition, it's being a part of one of the systems that props up racism. Here's a definition from the ADL for systemic racism. "A combination of systems, institutions and factors that advantage white people and for people of color, cause widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity. One person or…

It's a bit troubling that the definition of racism specifies what colors the actors must be to meet the definition. That fact alone makes the definition suspect.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#508

Post by tpxl »

shadowgovt wrote: post #469
maxwindiff wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benefitting from structural privileges is very different from being a racist though.

In computer security, we often talk about the lack of distinction between malice and ignorance---if the security system is bad, it doesn't matter if the attacker is intent on causing harm or merely innocently curious and hack-sawing away through your computer security for fun. The outcome is the same. I think the same principle applies here. Malicious racism and passive racism have the same effect.

I'll bite, what the fuck is passive racism?

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#509

Post by orf »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #447
TulliusCicero wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Climate change and social justice issues don't personally affect most the people who are vocal about it. Okay, I'm stopping reading here to start replying, because there are already numerous problems with your reasoning: * In the case of gay marriage, many of the people fighting for it were not, in fact, gay, and were not personally affected. Why does that matter? There were white people fighting in the civil right…

> Why is fighting for others a problem? Generally, it is not, but there is a risk that "people who are not X, but are fighting for X" will misrepresent the opinions of "people who are X". Also, "people who are X" usually have diverse opinions, while the "people who are not X, but are fighting for X" crowd often develops a monolithic opinion, and if you disagree with it, you are called anti-X. To give an example, I kn…

> but a woke white person might sic a Twitter mob on me for the sin of cultural appropriation.

Who cares. Wasn’t the point of the article you’re commenting on that a tiny minority is responsible for outsized impact in discussions like this?

So who cares what a “Twitter mob” says about you practicing yoga? Does this really have any bearing on current social justice issues like real cultural appropriation, anymore than a right-wing figure posting a video of someone yelling about the patriarchy has any bearing on feminism?

It’s a distraction that boils down the issues to figures you can hate: Cultural appropriation is stupid because someone got angry on Twitter because of yoga. Feminism is stupid because Ben shapiro filmed himself winning a debate against a feminist.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#510

Post by standardUser »

monoideism wrote: post #431
standardUser wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how culture wars have impacted your work and family life. I've lived most of my life in large metro areas, so from my perspective "culture wars" are mostly people in far away towns waving fists at us city folk. The actual impact on my life is minimal.

You live in a large metro area where beliefs are fairly uniform. It would be understandable if you share those beliefs that you wouldn't have any disagreements, right? And I'm not sharing with HN the details of my family and workplace discussions, sorry. But maybe someone else here will be willing to. If you don't believe me, then that's OK, that's up to you. Edit: I mean, the media even covers the near constant revo…

"If you don't believe me, then that's OK, that's up to you."

I didn't say, suggest or imply that I didn't believe you. I stated my alternative experience and asked for more information about yours.

"the media even covers the near constant revolts of activist employees"

From what I see, those are arguments between people who believe in Thing A very strongly and want to act on it and people who also believe in Thing A but would rather not make a huge fuss about it. But the number of people who don't believe Thing A, in the extremely diverse and heavily populated areas I have lived in, are very tiny. For example, I almost never encounter people who think we should censor sex more, or ban abortion, or not fight racism or oppose police oppression, or that we should in any way oppose LGBTQ rights, or enforce religious ideology on the public sphere, etc.

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