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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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It was this utopian vision of curating a rationalist garden of eden where nice people were nice to each other and came up with solutions to problems rationally,

No. I don't think that's what Zorba or anyone else ever envisioned this place being. That's purely a projection by you. Funny, you and Hlynka are sounding awfully alike lately.

This has clearly failed, and the rules have become the boot on the neck

There is no boot on your neck. There are rules like in almost every forum about not just slagging people off and shitting the place up with low-effort hot takes.

of people trying to find actual workable solutions, because people have weaponized our empathy against finding solutions.

Seriously, what "workable solutions" have you ever proposed? Raging about how much you hate your enemies is not a solution. If you were proposing solutions, you would not be modded (unless your "workable solution" is something like "treat my enemies like the zombies they are, with headshots").

The most fragile perspective dictates what is "charitable" or "kind", and the most dysfunctional deeply felt priorities prevents any solutions.

You are trying to characterize us as letting wokes and snowflakes dictate the norms of discourse here? Bullshit. Give me specific examples.

As someone who does run against the rules fairly often for being too spicy, it isn't something I have any complaints about. I just sometimes forget which ruleset I am under.

My only complaints are what would happen when new mods come up, but that hasn't happened yet.