site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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.

12
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The SEC allegedly investigated FTX roughly 6 months ago. Not only did they not make any finding about their activity, activity which is so hilariously fraudulent if even 1/2 the claims made by the liquidation CEO are in the ballpark of accurate, but they had multiple meetings in order to discuss the SEC issuing a no-action letter.

will he avoid jail time or only get a light sentence? seems unlikely. The SEC ignored madoff for over a decade but he still got the book thrown at him.

What about the countless hundreds of people who committed basic fraud with mortgage transfers and bundling before and during the finance crises of 2007 onwards?

I'm not sure what the Gary Gensler and company at the SEC will do; they're comically incompetent, damaging, and corrupt at the same time.

What about the countless hundreds of people who committed basic fraud with mortgage transfers and bundling before and during the finance crises of 2007 onwards?

The vast majority of the fraud happening at that time was done not by evil vampire squids and CEOs, but by parties with full political and media support: ordinary Americans who bought more house than they could afford. The other major party involved was mortgage brokers who colluded with ordinary Americans. "Don't worry, they don't check this. Just say you make $X."

The SBF fraud was even more egregious than 2008. The latter was more about risk management failure, the former seems like deliberate fraud.

I'm not sure what the Gary Gensler and company at the SEC will do; they're comically incompetent, damaging, and corrupt at the same time.

It will go above the SEC. It will likely be referred to criminal prosecution.