It’s been pointed out recently that the topics discussed in the Culture War thread have gotten a bit repetitive. While I do think the Motte has a good spread on intellectual discussion, I’m always pushing for a wider range (dare I say diversity?) of viewpoints and topics in the CW thread.
I was a lurker for years, and I know that the barrier between having a thought and writing a top level comment in the CW thread can loom large indeed. Luckily I’m fresh out of inspiration, and would love to hear thoughts from folks about effortposts they want to write but haven’t gotten around to.
This of course applies to regulars who post frequently as well - share any and all topics you wish were discussed in the CW thread!
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Notes -
I work at a libertarianish non-profit. Multiple other people in the organization have gone through online harassment campaigns. One of the people in the organization has had multiple New York Times writers go after him. Quite a few people have gotten death threats, and having an online stalker that hates your guts is pretty normal to them. They have also been the target of federal government tax status investigations, legally harassed by local government entities, and have had national bureaucratic institutions ask media outlets to go after them. Many of these "cancellation" attempts have just resulted in more donations to the organization.
Functionally I'd be pretty hard to replace. I'm the only one with my job title and skill set at this place. It wouldn't be impossible to replace me, just difficult, and probably expensive.
One of the higher ups that works there and would likely have input on my firing is one of my best friends.
I can't say anything and get away with it. There are probably still fireable things I could say or do. But mostly anything in the range of what I want to say is speak-able.
I think even being self employed wouldn't offer this level of job security (you can go after customers for self employed people).
And as I mentioned above I generally don't say anything online that I'm not willing to publicly defend with my name behind it. I'd write this same stuff on facebook with my full real name attached. I don't do that because facebook discussions seemed to be mostly a circle jerk or a cess pit of terrible arguments.
At worst, some of my pseudonymous writings would be awkward to attach to my name. I've talked about things you normally don't share in polite company, or on your facebook timeline. Drug use, dating life, family drama, etc. But I think the fact that I attempted to not publicly air these things in my own social circle would absolve me of most of those issues. Close associates would read it like they read a leaked private journal.
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