site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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.

11
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I’m sure Altman would do it if necessary. Altman is kind of weird looking but he has a big-headed appearance that a lot of gay guys ime seem to like. Thiel is a bottom so it probably depends on Altman’s proclivity. Always interesting to speculate about.

Thiel is a bottom? How do we know, I wonder..

That’s what my rich gay tech friends say, but I’m less informed than other people here, probably.

This is not interesting to speculate about at all. I did not consent to imagining Altman and Thiel fucking.

Neither did I, but now the cat is out of the bag, so let's have a look.

By the images of him online, Altman is okay looking. I wouldn't say he's super handsome, but he's at least high average. Thiel is okay-looking too. While I don't want to imagine any exchange of favours for favours, hypothetically let us say that if Altman offered a foot rub, so to speak, I don't see why Thiel would refuse on grounds of looks.

Probably it was more traditional currying favour with the boss and being the kind of guy that is "I like you, you're not a yes man!" "Thanks boss, that's your innate good sense and amazing instinct for making the right choice at work once more" that got him any positive attention and support.

Thiel is a bottom

Kinda curious how you know this.

I'm surprised that someone as driven as Thiel is a bottom, but I guess these things are not as correlated as I thought.

If you want to be a top, the best way to get hands on training data from an expert who knows what they're doing is- Well I'll give you three guesses. Needless to say the best tops are also bottoms.

It's just base rate, there are many more bottoms than tops.

Always interesting to speculate about.

No it isn't. I have to go watch cat videos after reading this thread.