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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025

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I, @FarNearEverywhere and @Tollund_Man4 are Irish and live in Ireland, the former two residing there and the latter in France. @self_made_human and @mrvanillasky are both Indian, with the former residing in the UK.

As for the claim that the only people who care about those topics are people who live in Silicon Valley: have you not noticed that the entire world has been talking about AI nonstop for the past two years? Have you not noticed what a hot-button issue the trans stuff is in every Western nation, to the point that Trump signed an executive order banning men from competing in women's sports, and the UK Supreme Court recently had to rule on the definition of the word "woman"? Indian caste dynamics are of profound import to the 1.5 billion people who live in India (even if only 1% of those people express an opinion about caste dynamics, that's still five times the population of Silicon Valley), never mind the diaspora. There's been a nationwide campaign of arson against Tesla because of the outsized power Musk wields (wielded?) as part of DOGE.

Of the items on your list, polyamory and Aella sound like the only ones to me which are uniquely Silicon Valley-coded.

Second @FtttG here, the only person who posts about Indian caste dynamics is yours truly, and only do so top provide context for Indian issues. I posted recently because of the likelihood of war, and before that, due to the caste census, an evil that most should be aware of.

My posting history is sparse. I did not post at all on the CW thread until a few months ago, as I mostly used the Wednesday threads to document my life. The caste posting here is pretty much non-existent. This place has a Silicon Valley bend, nothing beyond that. The evils we see with Bio Leninism and the ever-expanding centralising powers of states are meant to be warning signs about what heterogeneity looks like once it is accepted as the "new normal". A lot of the Irish CW posting, otoh sheds light on issues they face that do not get much attention despite the world being a place oversaturated with "news media".

I keep my India posting to a minimum and don't post as much general culture war stuff as I am not on Twitter as much nowadays, which is how I posted about James Lindsay's meltdown and how stupid the woke right is.

Themotte is still mostly Western, specifically US-centric, which is a good thing given the US is the most important nation of our times and the place where the largest number of users reside.

@Tollund_Man4 are Irish and live in Ireland

I left for France two years ago. But to add to your point I don't work in tech and have never even been to the United States.