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IguanaBowtie


				

				

				

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joined 2022 September 07 21:27:23 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
User ID: 946


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
IguanaBowtie


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 07 21:27:23 UTC
				


				
					

					
No bio...

				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 946


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom New Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				A Writeup On The Reason The Motte Relaunch Was Rocky
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Appreciate all the hard work. This is a heck of a project!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


there will likely be AI assistants that augment the worker in performing their task whilst not replacing them, and red tribers may find this new tool extremely useful and appealing, even if they do not understand it.




I suspect that this would not be so warmly received. Pride in one's work is a red-tribe value - having a blue-coded nannybot hovering over your shoulder nitpicking your welding sounds like a fair description of RT hell.


More generally, (from my experience in retail banking) as soon as AI minders become practical, immediate pressure develops to replace prickly & highly-paid domain experts with obedient fresh labor that can only follow instructions. (often required by regulation to obtain extensive credentialing, which they are then forbidden to use except in agreement with what the computer spits out) Considering how sensitive the red tribe is to (red tribe) job displacement, 'AI took my job and gave it to an immigrant' sentiments seems likely.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You vill eat ze bugs & live in ze pods!


/s


A reference to "The Great Reset" a real book & series of policy proposals from WEF founder Klaus Schwab, which lives large in the right-wing imagination as a real-life Euro technocrat who wants to rule them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe the person in question has already been Swatted once, moved to a hotel for safety but was quickly located and pizza spammed. (Claims, etc)


So yeah, war never changes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


can I at least have my own awards convention




This is the rub, of course. The woke memeplex grows by entryism and as such treats gatekeeping as an attack. You'd be lucky to get an independent book review site that rates books on explicitly non-woke grounds, but I doubt even that is feasible. (if anyone knows of one, please let me know) Even if it managed to avoid DDOS and doxxing and deplatforming campaigns, you're still left with a userbase of three principled libertarians and a zillion witches.


I dont know how to solve this one, other than 'read books from before 2010' and 'wait for the culture to change again to something less specifically hostile to this one thing'.


Other than, possibly, having a The Motte book review club.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It occurs to me that at least (1) and (2) are testable: your present self can go watch some old movies & play some old games that you missed at the time. Maybe throw in some stuff from before your era (there's lots of goodies on the NES) to calibrate it further. Possibly with a partner to pick out a good sample of good/bad/middling offerings without biasing you by knowing their review scores.


I think (3) is mostly explained by (4), at least in video games. There was indeed a fragmentation, along mass market vs hobbyist lines.  The defining feature is that hobbyists (defined in an interview that I can't currently locate as 'people who own 10 or more games') both have different tastes than the mass market and are hopelessly outnumbered by them, to the point of becoming a rounding error in the last decade. Both the AAA games industry and the big gaming journalism outlets live or die entirely by mass appeal - a few tens of thousands of units moved or clicks harvested aren't going to keep the lights on.


(As an aside, I think the decline of ink & paper gaming magazines had a big role to play - those viable even back in the day when only hobbyists were interested, while gaming websites have been able to attract wider attention) For their part, a good chunk of the hobbyist crowd has become openly hostile due to this marginalization, which does little to endear them to the big players that could be making an effort to include them.


This wouldn't really be visible in critic/user review score deviation, as critics would be expected to be 100% mass market and user reviewers would be an unpredictable mix of both. That said, I personally already use a system to 'correct' Metacritic scores to be more predictive for my own (hobbyist) tastes:


(average of User Score and Critic Score)+(user score)-(critic score)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think a less controversial way of saying this would be "exit rights are fundamental to any sort of free society", then going on to argue that nationalism and nativism in one country damages exit rights in all the others - leaving a crappy situation is great, but doesnt help if every scrap of land is occupied & no-one will let you immigrate an anything like fair terms.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Why the college bubble won’t pop
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This argument seems to centre around the mutually-consentual nature of the arrangement between students, educators & employers, but I'm reminded of the SSC parable of the society where everyone administers electric shocks to each other all day long and are stuck doing so because no-one has a strong enough local incentive to challenge the system and there's no Czar to put a stop to it from above. Students & employers only play along because defaulting is harshly punished by Mr Market. Even the schools don't love the current arrangement - they mostly remind me a lot more of a failing soviet bureau that everyone is nevertheless forced to use, than ruthless predators exploiting their gatepeer role.


I guess the issues are that


1-the current system has obvious failings and any rando can come up with proposals that might work better (legalize indentured apprenticeships!) but these would certainly have their own issues - not quite the same as 'stop shocking each other'.


2-the current 'Education Czar' is the US Dept of Education, and they are sufficiently captured by the system (and risk-averse to being blamed for alternatives that aren't overwhelming slam dunks) that they are firm electric-shock advocates.


As for the objection that it's not just the US doing this - I daresay that most everyone is just cargo-cult reproducing the US education system for lack of a proven alternative model. (including the US themselves)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the point of the whole thing is supposed to be something like 'fat black women doing overtly sexual stuff is high culture now, disapproving of & criticizing this is low-status'


Twerking especially is to be understood as a cultural phenomenon akin to (and aesthetically equal to) ballet or opera.


Seems woke to me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Meta: Is the Motte beset by bots?
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would just like to add a few thoughts:


Watermelon. Zaibatsu. Camraderie. Drum.


Hopefully this is at least modest evidence that my account isn't a chatbot.


Really not looking forward to endless 'prove you're not an AI' interactions in coming days...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I quite enjoyed 'So I'm a Spider, So What?', kind of an isekai antidote as the wish-fulfillment is turned down to -11.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I had assumed that it was not inherently sexual to crossdress, but one day I asked my wife who is an avid fan of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' what percentage of the contestants were straight. The answer was... zero. Since then, there have been a handful of hetero transwomen, as far as I know all former gay men.


Does this make crossdressing sexual? Not directly. I can't think of any reason why a man wearing a dress is an innately sexual act when a woman wearing slacks is not. Maybe crossdressing is culturally contingent on (some) gay subculture membership, like effecting a lisp. But 100%, even of a sample size in the low three digits, seems to point in that direction.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Apparently it's currently going a different direction - as Mastodon had an existing critical mass of too-left-for-Twitter refugees, the influx of centrists, normies and media bluechecks is being met with widespread condemnation & bans/defederation.


Source:


https://twitter.com/ajaromano/status/1594432548222152705


I imagine this is a temporary phenomenon, the masses are just following their the bluechecks & the latter has IRL status & isn't going to stand for being bullied by a bunch of left-radicals who just happened to get there first.  If the structure of Mastodon makes the natives too difficult to dislodge, the bluechecks will find somewhere else, (probably Twitter) wrestling in the mud out in the political fringes is the last place these folks want to be.


Definitely a no-lose scenario for me, as another user quipped.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


When you own one, you signal that you accept that is what you are supposed to get, and that can be helpful in filtering out weirdos




To me this smells of a forced meme, a product of Apple's marketing department. It reminds me of a recent meme about 'black air force energy', referencing Nike shoes that have somehow become a signal of a madman that should not be trifled with.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Does my Philosophy of Sexuality Professor Have a Point? (It's a mandatory gen-ed)
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lost me at premise one. I believe I have an absolute right to select my freinds & romantic partners based on whatever criteria I please, and said criteria are no-one's business but my own.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There are still some red-flavored entertainment products, and some do very well. The Fast & the Furious franchise jumps to mind, as does the new Top Gun.


They're all still made by blue-tribers, of course, which means that entertainment is either made to appeal to both tribes or just blue, never just red. (with a few exceptions that prove the rule, like The Terminal List)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Probably more that 'watching the victory of the side you supported' is the reward.


If vicarious enjoyment of a win you personally did (almost) nothing to contribute to wasn't a thing, professional sports wouldn't be a trillion dollar industry.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Stop that! It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How do you go about telling someone "Im sorry, but it seems likely that your disorder/lifestyle/lived-experience is the result of a sociogenic contagion", aka 'you got meme'd on, son'. Seems like an awkward conversation.


And also, I suppose, would even a conclusively proof of sociogenic origin automatically devalue said disorder/etc? Society is pretty accustomed to giving religions at least a partial pass despite being a pretty clear case of memery. I'm also reminded of the pathogenic theory of homosexuality - so what if it's caused by a virus, if you're happy the way you are?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
NAI, who suffered a high-profile hack & went on to watch their model be used as the basis for a thousand merges and derivatives, recently posted an infographic about how you can use their (unique, supposedly) style tokens to identify if a model is derived from theirs, and even the rough degree to which it was mixed in.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
NSFW AI-art project Unstable Diffusion has been axed by Kickstarter, despite already hitting their funding goal. This one isn't too suprising, as KS doesnt allow NSFW and a DIY pornomaker probably was never gonna slip by that filter even if it didn't ship with visible nipples.


Kickstarter took it a step further, however, formally amending their ToS and affirming that "Kickstarter must, and will always be, on the side of creative work and the humans behind that work."


It now appears that Unstable Diffusion is being driven off Patreon too, who dont have a no-NSFW excuse. Almost certain to follow the same pattern, at this point; there are too many established artists on that platform who are willing to boycott.


The twitterati taking responsibility for the bannings are targetting payment processor Stripe next. Seems like a textbook swarm governance action.


Ks:


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unstablediffusion/unstable-diffusion-unrestricted-ai-art-powered-by-the-crowd/community


Patreon:


https://www.patreon.com/unstablediffusion


Current fallback:


https://equilibriumai.com/index.html


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


backed by billions of dollars




This is actually concerning to me. Google's OpenAI and the like are happy to bow before the AI Safety crowd (the 'no racist chatbots' ones, not the 'no paperclip apocalypse' ones) so long as they can still make a gorillion dollars off the technology, and that means they really have no interest in allowing the existence of seedy AI applications like porn generators. That just brings bad PR to the whole field, for literally zero benefit. (Google isnt going to be entering the smut market anytime soon) Thus I worry that we're seeing the begginimgs of another unholy alliance between the progressive left & big money, nominally in the name of moral puritanism but with the real purpose of shoving the AI cat back in the SaaS bag.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My two theories:


-the fine arts are extremely Blue Tribe-coded, and as such any assault on their priviliges or status is presumptively a Red-Tribe action.(even when it's pretty clearly a Grey tribe thing)


-the fine arts are (more weakly) female-coded, and as such any assault on their priviliges or status is inherently anti-feminist.


Either way, 'this means war'.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I haven't seen the movie, but your post is relevant to a concept I've been thinking about for a while: applause lights as entertainment.


In theory, a lot of the tropes of modern entertainment exist to prevent bad things. Strong female characters exist to correct male overrepresentation & sexist portrayal of women, ethnically diverse casts likewise for race, ineffectual & pathetic villains exist to avoid the danger of glamourizing & thus promoting the crimes they commit etc. I can at least see where this comes from, even if I think it's misplaced paternalism.


However, I feel like there is a growing trend to go much further, to the point of valuing these things as ends unto themselves, to the degree that they outstrip in importance more traditional terminal entertainment goals like good storytelling, characterization, acting, production values etc. If the cast is nonwhite, there is a transgender lead, the plot shoehorns in a critique of capitalism - this is sufficient for the movie to be good and enjoyable, for a not-insignificant portion of the moviegoing public. The applause lights come on, people clap, and they clap because they enjoyed the applause light.


The inverse is also true, political incorrectness being enough to make a movie unwatchably bad - possibly even without anything problematic happening on-screen, beyond the presence of an actor or actress associated with offscreen wrongthink. (Chris Pratt jumps to mind)


I'm not quite sure how or when this came to be, but it seems like a stark difference compared to 20 or even 10 years ago. (and almost reminiscent of Soviet film) Booing the outgroup has always been a popular passtime, and there's some of that here (every single white male antagonist with predictable non-problematic personality defects, etc) but the majority seems more like a feel-good righteousness, like attending church - the more boring the sermon, the more virtuous the believer who manages to stay awake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think Elon will have the last laugh. He's on the right side of Metcalfe's law, and from a certain viewpoint it's insane that Twitter was actually for sale at any price.


The ways he loses are


-successful swarm governance action cancels twitter entirely. This is very tough, especially in the absence of a dramatic scandal and/pr effective competitor. (Mastodon ain't it)


Or


-successful oldschool-conspiracy, eg advertiser blockade, getting Elon arrested or the company fined out of existence. This is very difficult, Elon is very rich & sufficiently connected/established that he will be quite hard to dislodge, Twitter can run on like 50 people.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I could argue that 'porn on sports hashtags' is probably failure mode 1, swarm actors deliberately trashing the joint. But I guess it's possible that this was always a problem and twitter's old mod team just handled it effectively.


In that case, failure mode 3 would be "old fashioned incompetence, making the service worse than existing incompetent competitors and squandering the absolutely massive advantage of 340 million active users."


This could happen! I'm no Musk fanboy, I think he mostly succeeds on having a good sense of when breaking the rules won't be punished. But Twitter was already wildly incompetent(1) & it dominated regardless, and despite the platform having much more powerful enemies now I think Elon probably won't screw it up as badly as would be neccessary, and nor would anyone with a modicum of business experience, regardless of their politics.


(1) one of my big takeaways from the Twitter Files has been the incredible disorganization of the company & ignorance of upper management towards major issues until it was alreasu a PR disaster.