3 ms·

It's not clear to me whether this is the cause or effect though. I don't know how to present this theory in a falsifiable way, but I get the distinct feeling t

by ahepp 6y ago

It's not clear to me whether this is the cause or effect though. I don't know how to present this theory in a falsifiable way, but I get the distinct feeling that a lot of these culture war battles are conjured up out "weak man" arguments in a hyper-real manner. Buzzfeed writes an article about how conservative nuts (more properly a single conservative nut) is boycotting Starbucks because there's no Madonna in their latte foam. Blue tribe clicks the article and laughs at Red Tribe for being so stupid. Red tribe clicks the article and decides "Blue tribe is laughing, at us!". Red tribe grifter starts accepting donations to buy Starbucks cups and throw them into a paper shredder. Blue tribe starts a Foundation for Freedom from Religious Latte Art demanding depictions of Satan in their lattes. Suddenly everyone has extremely strong feelings about something as absurd as whether or not there should be a Madonna depicted in their latte. In many cases, it seems the original nut turns out to be someone who spent most of their life at reality TV auditions.

majormajor 6y ago
There's a common theme in a lot of these "you can't trust what you see" replies that it's specifically being amplified by the liberal side, to make conservatives look stupid. If you take that one step further down the sequence of events, though, we'd be aiming that critique at the Christian side of the media that's been making hay about the "War on Christmas" for decades. Find one person saying something, or one company doing something you can take the wrong way, use it to tell your audience they're under attack; lather, rinse, repeat. Growing up in it, I'd hear about this stuff in youth group, in chapel in school, even in not-officially-religious classes like History. Before the internet, it wasn't easy to escape that bubble if your parents were deep into it. Or do posters here really think there really are a lot of people out there trying to eliminate Christmas?
- throwaway894345 6y ago
  I don’t think anyone thinks people are out to eliminate Christmas in the sense you seem to mean it, which is kind of the point. Or rather, I’m sure some people do, but they are rare and not representative of Christians in general despite the generalization. To be clear there are people who take offense to the phrase “Merry Christmas”, which is what some traditionalists (Christian or not) take issue with, but no one is making a weak man argument about them either, i.e., no one says most people take offense to Merry Christmas.
johncessna 6y ago
This is literally what the article is describing. It's worse than 'the other tribe is laughing at us.' It's, 'if i don't fight my battle here, even though I don't really agree with it, we'll lose the war' That's why weakmen are super weapons. You have to use them. If you do look at your own tribe and say 'yeah that person is a loon' then you risk the whole tribe itself, and you can't have that.

by ahepp 6y ago

majormajor 6y ago

There's a common theme in a lot of these "you can't trust what you see" replies that it's specifically being amplified by the liberal side, to make conservatives look stupid. If you take that one step further down the sequence of events, though, we'd be aiming that critique at the Christian side of the media that's been making hay about the "War on Christmas" for decades. Find one person saying something, or one company doing something you can take the wrong way, use it to tell your audience they're under attack; lather, rinse, repeat. Growing up in it, I'd hear about this stuff in youth group, in chapel in school, even in not-officially-religious classes like History. Before the internet, it wasn't easy to escape that bubble if your parents were deep into it. Or do posters here really think there really are a lot of people out there trying to eliminate Christmas?

throwaway894345 6y ago
I don’t think anyone thinks people are out to eliminate Christmas in the sense you seem to mean it, which is kind of the point. Or rather, I’m sure some people do, but they are rare and not representative of Christians in general despite the generalization. To be clear there are people who take offense to the phrase “Merry Christmas”, which is what some traditionalists (Christian or not) take issue with, but no one is making a weak man argument about them either, i.e., no one says most people take offense to Merry Christmas.

johncessna 6y ago

This is literally what the article is describing. It's worse than 'the other tribe is laughing at us.' It's, 'if i don't fight my battle here, even though I don't really agree with it, we'll lose the war' That's why weakmen are super weapons. You have to use them. If you do look at your own tribe and say 'yeah that person is a loon' then you risk the whole tribe itself, and you can't have that.