site banner
PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   32194 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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.

6
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

According to the affidavit FBI submitted to get a warrant for searching the devices of the satanist O9A* affiliated matricide accelerationist Kasap, who was caught less than two weeks after he murdered his mother in early February, was in contact with a number of people and was, among other things

  • attempting to purchase a drone to drop some IED to kill or attack Trump
  • talking to someone apparently from Ukraine and asking about relocation and exfiltration from the US
  • getting advice on how to use repeaters to extend drone range

This is being spun two ways:

  • Russians are saying approximately: This is typical SBU work, they find some expendable extremists and give them advice to kill and cause chaos, this is just like the Crocus attack

  • media is quiet about the foreign angle now, and probably indefinitely but I imagine later it could be spun as Muscovite trolls seeking out vulnerable teenagers and egging them on to kill to frame the glorious SBU

The real story is probably the budding teenage satanist was

  • getting scammed out of crypto by one troll
  • getting lies about exfiltration to make him kill by another sadistic troll

Guy may have swapped his plates but was still using the same cell phones so absolutely NGMI tradecraft.

*Order of Nine Angles. Some sort of satanist cult, or more likely by now very loose online group.

The ONA advocates accelerationism, and promotes the idea that human history can be divided into a series of aeons, each of which contains a corresponding human civilization. Adherents believe that the current aeonic civilization is that of the Western world, but that the evolution of this society is threatened by the "Magian/Nazarene" influence of the Judeo-Christian religion, which the Order seeks to combat in order to establish a militaristic new social order, which it calls the "Imperium". According to Order teachings, this is necessary in order for a galactic civilization to form, in which "Aryan" society will colonise the Milky Way. It advocates a spiritual path in which practitioners are required to break societal taboos by isolating themselves from society, committing crimes, embracing political extremism and violence, and carrying out acts of human sacrifice. ONA members practice magic, believing that they are able to do it by channeling energies into their own "causal" realm from an "acausal" realm where the laws of physics do not apply, and these magical actions are designed to help them achieve their ultimate goal of establishing the Imperium.

This is some quality lore on wikipedia. Science-Fiction literature and its consequences can be rather darkly funny. If you're not related to any of the victims of course.

There's a rather hefty list of crimes supposedly involving these guys.

Sounds inspired from Warhammer 40k or Warhammer 40k was inspired by this mess. "Imperium" of man, 9 loyal legions and the Warp corresponding to the 'acausal realm'. Maybe the 1980s D&D moral panic was onto something.

Rather, good fiction has philosophical elements that are bound to feature in esoteric traditions.

No Jack Chick. Wargame nerds did not invent Platonism.

Imperium is a famous neo-nazi book after WW2 though..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium:_The_Philosophy_of_History_and_Politics

by a guy who liked occult crap too, though he was a more harmless kind of perv- some sort of dominant sadist or something. Wisely ate cyanide after FBI arrested him.

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