site banner
ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   31619 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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.

16
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The most basic issue is that the right is correct to mistrust the government, academia, the MIC and the corporate-activist superstructure. Those institutions had maintained the facade of neutrality for a long time, but decided to burn it all to damage Trump. Now the elites need a new pack of grifters to control this diffuse mob that doesn't trust all their carefully controlled outlets.

Tucker and DeSantis are some of the early attempts to get controlled opposition out in front of this distrust, but they won't be the last. Eventually the "new right" will be either discredited, destroyed or co-opted (probably all three). Just like the "new left" forty years ago, only these poor bastards aren't going to wind up in tenured academic positions once their "revolution" fails.

Tucker and DeSantis are some of the early attempts to get controlled opposition out in front of this distrust, but they won't be the last.

Are you suggesting that Tucker and Desantis are intentional establishment plants meant to lead the new right astray, or am I misunderstanding the use of controlled opposition? If you believe this, who are the genuine leaders or influencers of the new right?

Tucker's definitely a plant. His dad was an ambassador, head of Voice of Democracy and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Being the semi-respectable right-leaning face of official propaganda is basically the family business. DeSantis is just another politician trying to court the energetic vote of his own party, but if anyone thinks politicians are loyal to their constituents, I have two bridges to sell.

... you can absolutely just betray the interests of your parents. The children of monarchists or even aristocrats became revolutionaries, the children of russian elites became communists, children of union bosses become nazis, children of nazis become psychoanalysts, etc. Why can't that happen?

And every influential group will be overrepresented as relatives of every other influential group because of social selection and genes.

You don't mean to imply that DeSantis the Yale BA, Harvard JD, Navy JAG who at Guantanamo and Iraq dealt with the legal side of treatment of prisoners interrogated for intelligence purposes is not a man of the people do you?

The first couple of pieces of evidence are solid, but his complicity in the US torture programme doesn't disqualify him from the title "man of the people". It would, had it been unpopular at the time, but it wasn't.

Less the popularity of the programs and more the involvement with the TLAs running those programs might be considered a demerit.

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