In the mainstream discourse it’s undoubtedly so, but on LW, I’m not so sure. On many occasions, I’ve seen people here make comments about topics that are seen as even more inflammatory or outlandish in respectable mainstream circles, only to get calm, rational, and well-argued responses. Certainly I can’t think of any topics that are such a reliable discourse-destroyer on LW as the gender relations/PUA issues. I find it a fascinating question why this is so.
So, I think about race relations, as a somewhat obvious example.
The impression I’ve gotten is not that LW is capable of an advanced discussion of race relations but not of gender relations, but rather that race relations simply don’t come up in conversation as often as gender relations do. (Which isn’t too surprising, given how much more fundamental gender-marking is to our language than race-marking. )
But perhaps I’m not giving the community enough credit. If there have been valuable discussions here about race relations, I’d be interested to read them… pointers are welcomed.
In the mainstream discourse it’s undoubtedly so, but on LW, I’m not so sure. On many occasions, I’ve seen people here make comments about topics that are seen as even more inflammatory or outlandish in respectable mainstream circles, only to get calm, rational, and well-argued responses. Certainly I can’t think of any topics that are such a reliable discourse-destroyer on LW as the gender relations/PUA issues. I find it a fascinating question why this is so.
So, I think about race relations, as a somewhat obvious example.
The impression I’ve gotten is not that LW is capable of an advanced discussion of race relations but not of gender relations, but rather that race relations simply don’t come up in conversation as often as gender relations do. (Which isn’t too surprising, given how much more fundamental gender-marking is to our language than race-marking. )
But perhaps I’m not giving the community enough credit. If there have been valuable discussions here about race relations, I’d be interested to read them… pointers are welcomed.