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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
If such law would be passed I bet that you would not even need a chatbot - I expect that there would be enough interest on both sides (ranging from treating it as actual relationship to very thinly disguised prostitution).
I mean, I think what I'm clearly suggesting isn't that the Marines are seduced by an AI chatbot, rather that if asked to produce documentation that Pentagon would produce big chat transcripts between a Ukrainian woman and the Marine in question. Which is just a piece of comedy, I'm not sure they'd even bother producing it. Actually dating or marrying a Ukrainian woman is sorta orthogonal to the whole exercise, the goal is to send 10,000 Marines into Ukraine without ever saying you're sending 10,000 Marines into Ukraine. Ballpark, I bet you'd get 1/10 Marines to volunteer if it counts towards their service and promotions.
It would be really tough for Russia to pinpoint where that crosses the line and escalate against the USA. Hell, I'd say it's significantly less of an escalation than the USA/NATO handing over their entire back-office intelligence work to the UKR army. But because that happened one step at a time, there was no moment where Russia was firmly able to say "nope, you do that and there's war."
I think that's called salami tactics and it seems that they've both been playing that game
The issue with it is that once you start sending Americans in a war zone you will have boxed Americans coming back.
I know the American military has already been doing that. Back in 2015 an acquaintance of mine was asked if they wanted to 'help train' close to Crimea...
The issue is that the American government and military leadership already have a hard time finding recruits.
More options
Context Copy link
Yes, obviously.
Though if for some reason they would do this - they likely could do without lying in that part.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link