In Paul Fussell’s book on class (I think), he says that people are really worried about differentiating themselves from the class immediately below them, but largely ignorant of the customs and sometimes even existence of the classes above them. When I found SSC, and then The Motte, and stuff like TLP, I was astonished to find a tier of the internet I had had no idea even existed. The quality of discourse here is . . . usually . . . of the kind that “high brow” (by internet standards) websites THINK they are having, but when you see the best stuff here you realize that those clowns are just flattering themselves. My question is, who is rightly saying the same thing about us? Of what intellectual internet class am I ignorant now? Or does onlineness impose some kind of ceiling on things, and the real galaxy brains are at the equivalent of Davos somewhere?
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Notes -
Many reddit communities have been ruined by overaggressive moderating. The gatekeeping is real in that regard even if the people are cool and helpful. I think there is always some implicit rules or norms, like for finance subs, index funds are always good, etc.
I'd even go further, if someone hasn't yet had issues with censorship/moderation on reddit, it is an heuristic that this person is not very mentally active/a free thinker.
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