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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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Elon Musk has suspended a slew of liberal journalists and pundits from Twitter. It is, as Benjamin Braddoc puts it, a red wedding for the liberal establishment. I initially believed that he was just the "controlled" opposition of the deep state, obviously he's stepped on way too many toes for that. This imo underscores an important truth to the ultra principled who believe in free speech absolutism and neutral institutions, the overton window won't shift the other way just to punish the "heretics" who've assailed this sacred virtue. Social media, our Frankenstein, has made it insanely easier for mob rule to influence culture (not that it wasn't already).

I still don't believe we're witnessing complete course reversal, but this could just be the first legitimate W for the right.

EDIT: It looks like he's lifting the suspension.

Definitely the biggest W for the right since Trump. If Elon can succeed in bringing "the press are regime shills, institutions are all controlled by progressives, progressives only care about who/whom" to the mainstream, then a lot of the hard work is done. All these institutions have going for them is credibility. Once it's gone, it doesn't come back.

At risk of mod intervention: does your "Mottizens are secret socialists" view even matter here? We all know that Congress is one of the least-popular things around, and yet, you'll notice that the institution continues to exist and has not been abolished in favor of an autocracy. You can probably get enough Americans to admit that they hate the media, enough to occupy every square inch of Capitol Hill, and yet it's probably not going to force the entire corporate media landscape out of business in a week. It doesn't matter how "Fake and Gay" something is, so long as it has inertia.

What does it practically mean for something to be un-credible? Maybe once upon a time, that meant the thing would lose, in rough order, trust, profitability, mindshare, and power. Nowadays, a social faux pas is just as much an opportunity for defenders to rise up as it is for critics to come out. The NYT will continue to be an entity whose lifeblood is money, regardless of how many "normal" Americans they turn off. Same with all other corporate media.

Sure, most people aren't so disconnected from reality, as you allude to. Doesn't matter, the people who set the tone of the national conversation are the ones least-connected to reality, whatever silent-majority-salt-of-the-earth Americans who make up the "real world" don't.

EDIT: Another thing: I sympathize with the idea you're getting at, that maybe all of this doesn't really matter, but as I've tried to point out in this comment, the few-and-insane sure seem to have more timeline-steering power than most people could ever hope to do. Writing for the Paper of Record is a small seed of changing the minds of the people who have the power to re-order society, to shift great monies around for whatever project they want to see, to possibly destroy the world. I said this in a thread about HBD, that it really doesn't matter, but on the other hand, for those who believe in it, it sure as hell looks like the people who hold the levers of power are poised to drive America off of a cliff--and given the sheer political, military, cultural, and economic power of America, that might as well be tantamount to driving the entire human race off of a cliff. So, this is to say that it doesn't matter, and yet it does at the same time.

does your "Mottizens are secret socialists" view even matter here? We all know that Congress is one of the least-popular things around, and yet, you'll notice that the institution continues to exist and has not been abolished in favor of an autocracy.

First, it's not that the motte is full of "secret socialists" it's that the motte is overwhelmingly secular, progressive, and politically left wing. Yes, there is a difference. More specifically my view is that atheism is the default here. Being college-educated is the default here, A belief in the fundamental correctness of; "Science!", progress, identity politics, elite theory, external loci of control, Marx's model of class consciousness, Hegelian opprossor/opressed dynamics, and so on is the default here. Accordingly, anyone who doesn't already buy into all of these assumptions faces an uphill struggle if they want participate in the discussion.

What does it practically mean for something to be un-credible?

Well this is the 64,000$ question isn't it. One of the core cultural differences between "Red" and "Blue" America is how they think and talk about questions of "authority", letter vs spirit of the law, and similar issues. I know what being credible or (un-credible) means to me. I know what it means when I talk to my friends, family, and co-workers in meat-space, but it's equally clear that what it means to me is very different from what it means to most of the users here. The simple answer from my perspective is that "credibility" is the quality possessed by an "authority", and that someone becoming (or being) un-credible is analogous to loosing one's authority. However because of the issue I observed above about shared assumptions, or rather the lack there of, this probably ought to be unpacked a bit. The traditional conservative definition of "an authority" is the combined qualities of being listened to and believed, both being necessary requirements. Someone who is listened to and not believed is not credible nor are they an authority, and vice versa. Hence the classic formulation of the "appeal to authority". You might not trust me but you can trust so-and-so can't you?

The thing is that the model of authority I have just described is substantially different from the one that is typically used here. The average Mottizen seems to view authority and credibility as things that are bequeathed or imposed society's elites rather than as emergent properties. See @The_Nybbler's line about "The NYT has credibility because they are among the definers of credibility" above, or Scott's long-form posts in defense of Fauci (either removed or retitled at some point because I can't seem to find it atm) and on Bounded Distrust for examples this in action. The difficulty from my perspective is that the whole idea of there being a "definer" or "arbiter" of credibility outside the people being spoken to comes across as complete nonsense because I do not share the sort of underlying assumptions listed above.

At risk of mod intervention myself: The less charitable interpretation of both @The_Nybbler and Scott's posts is that it doesn't matter whether Dr. Fauci and/or the NYT have been demonstrated to be liars, we need to trust them because that is what intelligent rational well-educated people do, and you wouldn't want to be mistaken for someone who is not intelligent, rational, or well-educated would you? To which my impulse is to reply with an eye roll. My ego/perception of my own self-worth is apparently not as wrapped up in being perceived as intelligent or well-educated as theirs are.

The less charitable interpretation of both @The_Nybbler and Scott's posts is that it doesn't matter whether Dr. Fauci and/or the NYT have been demonstrated to be liars, we need to trust them because that is what intelligent rational well-educated people do, and you wouldn't want to be mistaken for someone who is not intelligent, rational, or well-educated would you?

It is not that we need to trust them; I don't. It is that in denying what the New York Times says or what Fauci says -- no matter how much evidence you bring to the table -- you are reducing your own credibility and not affecting theirs at all. You're an "anti-vaxxer" or "lol a Faux News listening Drumpf supporter". And yes, authority and credibility are imposed; perhaps credibility should be emergent, but it is not. Anybody with power and authority will act as if Fauci and the NYT are telling the truth; if you act otherwise you will either need to find other cover for your actions, avoid judgement of them, or be penalized for them.

don't. It is that in denying what the New York Times says or what Fauci says -- no matter how much evidence you bring to the table -- you are reducing your own credibility and not affecting theirs at all.

Reducing your own credibility among whom exactly? What's so bad about being a "Faux News listening Drumpf supporter"?

And yes, authority and credibility are imposed; perhaps credibility should be emergent, but it is not.

I get that you as an ambiguously gay Manhattanite who has chosen to spend their entire life immersed in a progressive environment believe this, but I don't think that history bears it out. Defeat is inevitable until it is not. The captain's word is inviolable until the mutiny.

What credibility the NYT has comes from people like you. You talk a big game about not trusting them but talk is cheap and your actions say otherwise. You could walk away at any time, why don't you? Simply put, I don't see much of a difference between you and the Soviet-era party apparatchik who nods along to the latest news in Pravda even when he knows it's a lie because he values his status within the party more than he values the truth. Ironically, being a practicing Catholic, I'm probably more inclined to sympathize to that position than a lot others in the rationalist diaspora, but don't pretend that isn't the choice you've made.

I get that you as an ambiguously gay Manhattanite who has chosen to spend their entire life immersed in a progressive environment believe this

LOL. I think you have me confused with someone else. I'm neither ambiguous, gay, nor a Manhattanite.

The captain's word is inviolable until the mutiny.

And even if the mutiny succeeds, every hand turns against the mutineers. Your mutineers can't win unless they defeat the entire Admiralty and the state behind it as well. And they can't.

What credibility the NYT has comes from people like you. You talk a big game about not trusting them but talk is cheap and your actions say otherwise. You could walk away at any time, why don't you?

So walk away from my job and become what, a subsistence farmer in Iowa until the BLM (the government agency, that is) decides the land I'm using is too environmentally sensitive for farming? How does that reduce the NYTs credibility?

Simply put, I don't see much of a difference between you and the Soviet-era party apparatchik who nods along to the latest news in Pravda even when he knows it's a lie because he values his status within the party more than he values the truth.

I don't nod along. But my not nodding along doesn't hurt them; sometimes it hurts me.

LOL. I think you have me confused with someone else

No, I don't think I do

And even if the mutiny succeeds, every hand turns against the mutineers. Your mutineers can't win unless they defeat the entire Admiralty and the state behind it as well. And they can't.

Are you familiar with the history of mutinies? Forcing the admiralty to the negotiating table is actually a more common outcome than one might expect. It turns out that de facto control of a capital ship is one hell of a bargaining chip. Spithead, Gibraltar, Invagadon, Kiel, just to name a few.

So walk away from my job and become what, a subsistence farmer in Iowa...

Or, as our previous conversations have covered, there are plenty of decent tech and legal jobs in places like Hunstville, Orlando, and Fort Worth. Your rejection of them as beneath you is on you.

I don't nod along.

Yes you do, you're doing it here, and then you try to paint yourself as a victim for doing so, because victimhood complexes is what progs do. I notice that you never answered my question. What is so bad about about being an "anti-vaxxer" or a "Faux News listening Drumpf supporter"?

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Like Scott once said:

They can publish as many bad articles as they want, & I lose reputation each time I try to review them. Effective Gish Gallop strategy

Kolmogorov Complicity is still complicity.

First, it's not that the motte is full of "secret socialists" it's that the motte is overwhelmingly secular, progressive, and politically left wing.

I doubt that Mottizens would overwhelmingly vote for US Democratic party or UK Labour (or equivalent in other countries)

Yes, there is a difference. More specifically my view is that atheism is the default here.

Most of issues debated here are issues where existence of God/Supreme Being/Great Architect/Intelligent Designer is not relevant at all. When was the last time you saw here atheist/religious debate in the noughties style?

Being college-educated is the default here, A belief in the fundamental correctness of; "Science!", progress, identity politics, elite theory, external loci of control, Marx's model of class consciousness, Hegelian opprossor/opressed dynamics, and so on is the default here.

If only ;-(

When people here talk about Marx and Marxism, they mean in 99% cases "cultural Marxism" other than anything that Marx or anyone folowing him actually said and wrote.

I doubt that Mottizens would overwhelmingly vote for US Democratic party or UK Labour (or equivalent in other countries)

...What percentage of Mottizens do you think voted Obama? I would guess at a number north of 75%.

I doubt that Mottizens would overwhelmingly vote for US Democratic party

I know it's been a while since @tracingwoodgrains has done one of his surveys, but if we take them at face value the most common political affiliation on the motte is Democrats, followed by various 3rd parties. Mottizens voted overwhelming for Clinton in 2016 and gave a slight majority to Biden in 2020.

Most of issues debated here are issues where existence of God/Supreme Being/Great Architect/Intelligent Designer is not relevant at all.

I disagree.

If only ;-(

Look around. It might not be obvious to you because it's the water you're swimming in but from the outside it's not to notice.

Most of issues debated here are issues where existence of God/Supreme Being/Great Architect/Intelligent Designer is not relevant at all.

I disagree.

Well, in the last days, this space is mostly dedicated to Elon Musk and his Twitter escapades. What is the religious/biblical perspective on this current event? How could this issue be even explained in Biblical terms?

Poor man Sveneicus was watching from his window road to his town, and suddenly saw rich man Elonus on the road, traveling, as was his custom, on elephant covered with gold and jewels shining far away.

Sveneicus climbed to the roof and yelled loudly: "Rejoice, citizens! Great Elonus is coming to visit our town! What great honor for all of us!"

Elonus heard Sveneicus and was very displeased. "Stop it! I have many enemies, some of them might heard you and try to harm me. Do you want to have my innocent blood on your hands?"

Who is in the right, Elonus or Sveneicus? What would Jesus say to them?