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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Are you implying that there is some other civilization that does things better?
This thing is probably the most blackpilling thing about today's world.
Who profits from GoF research? There is no big business or government interest, there are no massive profits, this thing goes on so few thousand people can publish peer reviewed articles no one will ever read and burnish their citation metrics.
Few thousand people with concrete names, faces and addresses.
And no one cares.
Not governments, not billionaires, not celebrities (to say nothing about general normie population). Not any "protestors" "activists" or "rebels". All people, including the most rich, powerful and influential ones who can nevertheless die together with billions of ordinary peons when the next oops happens.
And oopses like this are happening pretty much regularly.
Imagine a ship, old times sailing ship. Ship where midshipman one day decided to drill a hole below the waterline, just for fun, just becuase he could. And everyone - captain, officer, crew and passengers - just watches and says: not my problem.
If you need hard evidence that humanity as a whole deserves to die, this is it.
Well the Chinese do some things better but other things worse.
There was another actual-officially-confirmed Covid lableak too, in Taiwan actually: https://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/covid-lab-leak-in-taiwan/
I mirror your notion about deserving to survive. The universe we see is so enormously rich and vast. Just one star is worth so much for so long. Our whole civilization relies upon a sliver of 0.000000045% of the Sun's power that reaches us, which goes through all kinds of circuitous routes in plankton, fish, agriculture and coal before it gets to us. If it gets to us at all. Our Sun is peanuts compared to the O-type giants, nothing compared to the black hole at the centre of the galaxy or whatever comprises 'dark' matter. There's nigh-endless energy and resources available to us. If only we showed a little seriousness about capturing them, if only we considered things more carefully, if we organized ourselves more efficiently... I read Bostrom's Astronomical Waste and it's enormously moving. The stakes are so enormous and our effort to survive and prosper is so pathetic.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link