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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   32904 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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We did have a few moments in the past where aesthetically unappealing opinions worked to drive out some more sensitive right-wingers; I particularly remember a few abortion-related meltdowns back when we were still on Reddit. Since then I don't think we've experienced a repeat of the sort of long, detailed and many-sided discussion of abortion that precipitated it, and in general I do get the sense that the shock contributed to us becoming more of a safe space for the right wing only.

Unfortunately, without naming names, the people who were actually the first to be affected seemed to come from the best rather than the worst side of the spectrum of right-wing posters. For all the appeal that the idea of balanced offense to everyone has to me (for what it's worth, I even briefly brainstormed about the most offensive-to-the-right belief I could defend in good faith, and arrived at something like "mandatory mRNA vaccine drive to eradicate STDs, so we can reap the utility gains of more unprotected sex among strangers; the additional unwanted pregnancies can be taken care of by subsidised access to abortions"), I therefore fear that selecting for the thickest-skinned of posters will not only not remove the ideological bias, but also push the average quality down.

There seems to be a pretty even balance of pro-choice and pro-life posters here. See the latest discussion in this thread.

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