site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 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.

16
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Just noticed some obvious botting action on Reddit. I know this is likely common knowledge, but it's still freaky to see it firsthand.

Currently, the top post on all of reddit is this thread complaining about LED Lights on cars: https://old.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/z6wiz7/getting_blinded_any_time_i_drive_after_sunset/

But more interesting are the replies nested under the top two comments. Emphasis mine.

First:

ConclusionFirm1239

3 hr. ago

Also it costs 200 dollars just to buy a replacement light. If they are gonna regulate I'm not paying JACK they better put it on the car and headlight manufacturer.

Second:

BreathAgreeable2604

4 hr. ago edited 3 hr. ago

Some cars come with them naturally! I have an Acura and that is the standard headlight it comes with and there is no option to downgrade to something dimmer. Also it costs 200 dollars just to buy a replacement light. If they are gonna regulate I'm not paying JACK they better put it on the car and headlight manufacturer.

I only noticed because of the emphatic capitalization of "jack". I thought I was having a deja vu.

Of course, notice the usernames look like they were randomly generated in batch using noun+adjective+4 digits.

I assume these are GPT bots deployed by spammers, scammers, state actors, all the other dregs of society. Or maybe it's less sophisticated than that, considering the identical quotes.

It's deeply worrying as I still find value in Reddit both for general entertainment and specific info finding (like product reviews, or Quora-like research). As automation like this becomes pervasive and impossible to tell apart from actual posting, Reddit will become ever less useful of a platform to me. This might be ok for a few more years, but at some point, I think enough users will demand a platform that uses some sort of real person verification because otherwise everything just becomes advertising and scams. But then there is more impetus to virtue signal given the lack of anonymity. I trust that VCs and entrepreneurs will somehow figure out clever solutions, but until they do, it sure feels helpless to be subject to forces that seem impossible to combat.

Of course, notice the usernames look like they were randomly generated in batch using noun+adjective+4 digits.

When you create a reddit account it will suggest a random username with this format.