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:
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Shaming.
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Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
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Recruiting for a cause.
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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:
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Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
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Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
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Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
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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.
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.
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Hello everyone. So, as the title would suggest I have recently been prescribed Zepbound for weight loss. I won't go too far into my long history of struggling with my weight as an adult, but suffice it to say I have been fat for basically my whole life. High school, fat. College, fat. After college, lost some weight, gained it all back, and wouldn't you know it, as a young professional, fat. You can therefore hopefully imagine my excitement and hope when I heard about these things called GLP-1s, and how they were something of a miracle drug for weight loss. Sure there were a bunch of other neat effects that some papers started reporting on, but frankly I did not, and do not, give a shit. I thought that the Motte might get a bit of enjoyment out of reading a weekly post about how Zepbound is effecting me. Call it a case study, though it'll probably be more of a blog. My current plan is to post on Fridays, injection day, and take notes throughout the week. Ideally. We'll see how that goes. At some point I'll probably switch to one post a month, simply because I'll be on a full-scale dose and the week-to-week changes will likely be minimal. Per the manufacturer's instructions, I'll be rotating the injection site weekly, and I'll include that in the biodata section below for your consumption, though frankly I don't know if I have the guts (hah) to inject into my stomach. I might just alternate thighs. If you have questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, whatever, let me know. If these do well or if there is clearly an appetite (hah) for more, I'll keep posting. If the obvious vibe is "shut up fatty nobody cares" then I won't. Please do say so if there's something you think I'm leaving out that I'd like to mention.
Bio-data
Sex: Male
Age: 29
Height: 71.25"*
Starting Weight: 278.0lbs**
Current Weight: 273.5lbs
Goal Weight: 200lbs***
Starting BMI: 38.8
Starting Dose: 2.5mg
Current Dose: 2.5mg
Injection Site: Right Thigh
* Yes I lie on dating apps and say I'm 6'.
** At my weight, daily fluctuations in the 2-3lb range are pretty standard. But 278.0 is what the scale said on Day 1, so that's what I'm going with.
*** Technically still in the middle of the "overweight" BMI range, but the idea of being 200lbs is as foreign to me as the idea of being thin. So we start with a nice round number, and see how it goes from there.
Day One
Notes: I'm incredibly excited about starting. I get off work, drive directly to the pharmacy, and pick up my prescription. Fortunately (well, ish) because I am a Level 3 Fat (Obese Class II) insurance covered it, and Eli Lilly has a manufacturer's coupon, which together brings the cost down from the extortionate $1500 a month to an affordable $25 a month. I get home, and pretty much immediately pop open the container, read the instructions, and inject the first pen. It stings a little, though honestly it's not as painful as I'd feared.
Effects: None noted
Day Two
Notes: I notice that I'm simply less hungry throughout the day. I know that the 2.5mg dose is not really supposed to have that much of an effect, it's mostly to get your body adjusted to the drug so that when you ramp up to the real effective dosages (5mg-15mg), you're less likely to suffer adverse effects like nausea and diarrhea. So I'm wondering if this is placebo effect, but I'm not going to question it. Less hungry = eating less food = less calories = weight loss. Placebo effect or drug, as long as the number on the scale goes down I'm happy.
Effects: Appetite suppression
Day Three
Notes: I again note that I'm less hungry throughout the day, and realize I probably should start actively logging my food intake, both for calorie counting purposes and to see if I actually do trend down in terms of consumption. I resolve to start this. Today I ate one 8" sandwich (lunch and quasi-dinner), 8oz of potato salad (lunch), one almond croissant (evening), and one hot chocolate (evening). I've added the approximate caloric intake to each day's log. I was planning on eating the entire sandwich for lunch, but felt absolutely stuffed after only eating half. I saved the other half for a few hours later, and ate it then. Around 7pm I felt moderately hungry but not that hungry. Out of what I now think was pure habit I went out and got something to eat, the aforementioned croissant and hot chocolate. After consuming both I feel grossly overfed, and a bit nauseous. Was it too much food? Or was it the processed sugars? Is this what a normal person eats in a day? I try to temper my expectations and keep from getting too hopeful too fast, but I can't remember the last time I've eaten this little in a day.
Effects: Appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety, nausea(?).
Caloric Intake: 1850 calories.
Day Four
Notes: First day back at work since I started. I read that most people experience side-effects 1-2 days after the injection, so I made sure to do it on Friday hoping any issues would crop up over the weekend, not while I'm at work. If my company ever needed to worry about my loyalty, the fact that the insurance I'm getting from them covers Zepbound should reassure them mightily. I noticed lowered appetite suppression today, but still increased feelings of satiety. I wanted to eat more, but I felt absolutely stuffed after eating about 2/3rds of my lunch (rice, sweet potato, beef). Perhaps most importantly, I was able to actually stop eating when I felt full. This is something I've struggled with my whole life. If there is food in front of me, I want to eat it, and I rarely felt full before finishing everything in front of me. This is two days in a row when I have felt completely full before finishing my food, and actually been able to stop eating. It sounds dumb, but this actually is a serious behavioral change. Dinner was a bowl of cereal.
Effects: Lowered appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 1800 calories.
Day Five
Notes: Continued downward trend of appetite suppression today, but a similar "eyes bigger than stomach" effect vis-a-vis increased satiety. I had a chicken sandwich and fries for lunch, and while I ate the chicken breast, the pickle, the tomato, and the fries, I left about 2/3rds of the bun un-eaten. I finished eating lunch around 12:30pm, by 5pm I still felt full. Not my usual level of full where I think "oh I could probably eat something if I wanted to, but I just don't really want to" but "if I eat anything larger than an apple I am going to hurl it right back up." Not quite nausea, I didn't want to throw up, but certainly uncomfortably full. I think getting used to this increased satiety is going to take me a little while. I'm going to try making a conscious effort to slow down my pace of eating, in hopes of noticing I'm full before I actually feel full. While this isn't quite nausea, it's certainly not that pleasant either.
Effects: Lowered appetite suppression, increased feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 1500 calories.
Day Six
Notes: No appetite suppression at all today, I was angrily eyeing the clock by 10 wondering when I could reasonably eat my lunch, and I was already hungry when I got home. That said, I still ended up eating my lunch in two parts (half at noon, half at 2pm). So still some increased feeling of satiety, just not to the same effect as yesterday or Monday. Not surprising in the least, lowest dose of the medicine and the first week of taking it, honestly I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Overall I'm very pleased with the effects so far, I just wish they'd lasted longer but I'm sure that'll happen either next week or when I step up to the 5mg dose.
Effects: Less feeling of satiety.
Caloric Intake: 2000 calories.
Day Seven
Notes: Nether appetite suppression nor increased feelings of satiety today. Still, I was able to maintain some good habits, like slowly eating my relatively healthy (fish & rice) lunch. I'm assuming I'll more-or-less revert to form tomorrow, but overall this has been a very successful first week.
Effects: None
Caloric Intake: 2000 calories.
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service
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.
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service
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.
Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).
As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.
These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.
Quality Contributions to the Main Motte
Contributions for the week of September 29, 2025
Contributions for the week of October 6, 2025
Contributions for the week of October 13, 2025
Contributions for the week of October 20, 2025
Contributions for the week of October 27, 2025
Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).