site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   37901 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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.

13
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Boner mistake on my part, because yes, the purchase/rent differential is massive.

We even talked about cheap Asian apartments on this very forum a year or so ago. IIRC, there was an apartment in Osaka that was renting for like $125/month.

That's obviously impossible in the U.S. For one, the unit wouldn't be up to code.

But more importantly, an extremely poor Japanese person can still be counted on to pay their rent and not destroy the unit. This is very not true of the American underclass. So there is a dollar amount, say $1000 a month in a place like Seattle, below which it never makes sense to rent your apartment. If you get a tweaker, they can do $100k worth of damage and take 3 years to evict.

Landlords can buy apartments in a city like Detroit or Toledo for like $50k and then turn around and rent them for $750/month each. What's more, this is NOT a profitable business. How do I know? I invested in a company that did just that. They were constantly dealing with delinquents and maintenance costs. It's true that you can make a profit renting to the poor, but only by employing slumlord tactics. It's a nasty business best left to immigrants.

If you get a tweaker, they can do $100k worth of damage and take 3 years to evict.

I knows these are probably SWAG numbers, but it reminded me of the fact that the rule-of-thumb for incarceration per year is between $80k-$100k (EDIT: looks like it's about $40-$50k, though there is some large state by state variance) depending on which state (or federal) the prisoner is locked up in.

It's interesting to consider that the cost of "not an active participant of society" ($60k-$100k, to cast a wide net) outpaces the median working-age wage ($35-$60k depending on location and age).

The other way to make money renting to the poor is by not having the poor pay the bill. Section 8 is big business, and there’s nice section eight with drug tests and a strict policy on tenants paying their share of the rent(and in my area often advertisements only in Spanish, which the virtuous poor disproportionately have as a first language compared to the underclass through fault of their own), in addition to crappy section 8 which asks no questions so long as the check keeps coming from the government.

(and in my area often advertisements only in Spanish)

This is smart. I had a brilliant idea to only list apartments for rent in Chinese. But then I found out that even East Asians can grift.

The Chinese play way to hardball for that, although I guess Tagalog or Vietnamese might be a smart niche to try.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats