site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025

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.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

My sheer laziness has saved me. I was asking about financial advice a month back, which largely confirmed my urge to buy the S&P 500 or Vanguard.

Then the previous market crash happened, and I resolved to buy the dip, but ended up procrastinating.

Still am, but look at me, saved from (theoretical) losses by Never Doing Anything.

Buy a Vanguard index fund. Don't worry about dips or peaks. The stock market was lower last September. People are making a very big deal about a small bump.

The bump is small because part of the market is betting that these tarrifs will be reversed, either immediately or following some face-saving negotiation. Obviously it's not very smart to bet against the wisdom of the market, but depending on your local and personal conditions it can be wise to engage in some risk-hedging. For example, There's a pretty decent chance I'll either lose my job in the next two months thanks to contracting stuff, or keep the job and buy a house, so I'm sitting on a fair amount of liquid cash so I can respond to either eventuality.

I intend to, but I'm unfortunately quite lazy. When I do, I'll park it and forget it till a rainy day.

Can't have losses if you never put money in the market. taps head

I'm also (somewhat) saved by laziness... was going to buy more (on leverage) yesterday but never got around to doing it. Never Get Up.