site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29425 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 19, 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.

5
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

That doesn't really answer the question.

Let's take a concrete example.

Let's say I am Gabe Newell, I own a quarter of Valve, a company that made around $6B in profit last year and which I founded and has never been public. It's clearly worth a lot more than 20% of my considerable net worth, but how much is it worth exactly and who gets to decide that?

Is it worth what capital I originally put in it? Some multiple of how much something else i exchanged a piece of the company is worth? Is it worth how much my bank thinks it's worth when they give me a loan? Is it worth what the IRS just decides it's worth? Is it worth how much I think it's worth? Or what Bloomberg thinks it's worth? Or what some judge thinks it's worth when the government sues me for tax fraud when I fill in any other of these numbers?

Now let's say that tomorrow I decide to announce the release of Half Life 3. The value of the company has clearly changed. Has the value of my unrealized gains changed at all for tax purposes. And by how much?

Well I did expect it would end up being some variation of "a bunch of IRS bureaucrats decide what the value of your shit is", but can we at least apply it to our real world case here.

Valuation events are left unclear, so what is Gabe going to pay on? The value of the company last they changed the cap table multiplied by the Fed rate plus 2 compounded if I'm getting this right?

So it's either going to be since his divorce or the Campo Santo acquisition. And the value is going to be based on how good a lawyer his wife has or how much he wanted some third party developers. Makes perfect sense.

I wouldn't say insane so much as tyrannical. But yes property taxes are tyrannical. Because they're a violation of private property that is not meant to fund public works.

Just taking from people by force of arms because you don't like that they have is something that I think is clearly immoral. Enforcing equality is not a legitimate goal of government and is in fact something that I believe is grounds for armed revolt.

But the subjectivity I'm talking about is that of value. Property taxes as a category are nonsensical because economic value can't be determined without transaction. Hence it just ends up being setting a number you're going to take from people.

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