site banner
PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3314 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 22, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

(CW tangent, but too low effort for the main thread)

Just had an epiphany. Reddit's /r/politics must be what it's like to live in an authoritarian state with total state capture of the media and institutions. For the past two months, all the headlines I scroll past cast continuous doom for the GOP. From how the House keeps on losing members, to how law experts keep on finding Trump doomed, to how Biden is ahead in key polls.

On the one hand, I don't doubt there is plenty of factual basis to many of these headlines, but a Straussian (what is it called when you have to read between the lines, but not because the author intends?) interpretation is that the "state" feels vulnerable, and like a strongman, it lashes out when it feels insecure. It reminds me of the "tired of winning" meme--if the left is constantly winning on every front, then surely there will be no more news to report? People often criticize China for faking its stats. That seems plausible, but it also seems like its GDP figures must not be too off, because if you boast 10% YoY for twenty years and it's actually 7%, at some point the gap in reality becomes too large even for true believers.

Now, if Dems sweep Congress and the Presidency in November, then all this is justified. But right now GOP winning the presidency is a coin toss and the Senate 75% per prediction markets, which makes the resolute true belief of the community seem unhealthy. I guess I can reconcile it from the lens of religion--if all you require is faith, then perhaps the community sleeps more soundly the more one-sided headlines they see day-in-day-out. And if rapture/apocalypse doesn't come, just move the date forward another four years.

This is not too low effort, and please do not put culture war stuff in the friday fun thread.

It’s because Reddit (and all similar communities) have a fundamental design flaw for actual issue discussion in that upvotes serve as both ‘retweets’ (in that they make the content more visible) and ‘likes’ (in that they express ‘approval’ with a comment, link, image, news story or happening). Traditional forums are another example of where this doesn’t happen, because post prominence is just tied to comment recency and ‘likes’ are usually a separate way to say thanks for a comment with an emoji or some forum currency or whatever. The Reddit model is much better for viral content, memes, cat gifs, but less so for politics and current affairs.

I don’t think it’s that Libs are unwilling to discuss ‘bad news’ (for them), you see plenty of it in online news comments sections on left-leaning opinion and news sites, for example, or on their Facebook pages. But to upvote a ‘Democrats are doing terribly’ post triggers some tribal instinct. It’s the same reason Russian footage of the Ukraine War is never going to be upvoted on /r/combatfootage, the sub is partisan and even if it isn’t actually ‘anti-Ukrainian’ to discuss Russian footage, the very act of upvoting the enemy’s victories feels dirty and humiliating.

Please don't respond to culture war stuff in the friday fun thread.

Reddit group think has been a thing in all election cycles for a decade. The people who take the time to post about politics on reddit are not a representative slice of americana.

If you really want to see the terminal state of such communities. I highly recommend https://old.reddit.com/r/ZeroCovidCommunity/. It is full of batshit bonkers people that are stuck in an imaginary worldwide pandemic that will certainly kill them and their family if they step outside without a mask. If you dare to click anyone's profile you'll see a laundry list of co-occurring mental health disorders that play right into this kind of extreme behavior.

Their stories of self imposed isolation over the last 4 years are so sad and pathetic that all you can really do is laugh so you don't cry. All posts must be supportive of whatever kind of insane shit they are posting about, so there is never any pushback or challange, just positive reinforcement of life altering bad decision making.

Please don't respond to culture war stuff in the friday fun thread.

Sure.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats