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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31017 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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Prediction challenge: The NYT recently released an article on the likely result of the supreme court ending affirmative action. What is the most common sentiment in the comments? (As measured by "reader picks", most recommended comments.)

To play, make a prediction regarding the NYT readership's first thought on ending affirmative action, in your head (easy mode) or in a reply to this comment (hard mode). Then read the most recommended comments here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/us/affirmative-action-admissions-scotus.html#commentsContainer Without editing your original prediction, reflect on how you did.

Prediction before reading: if you hadn't made a post about it on here, my default assumption would have been some of them leaning in favor of keeping affirmative action, but the commenters being surprisingly moderate overall despite the overall left politics of NYT readers. Since you posted about it here my gotcha sense is tingling and is now assuming that the comments are overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing AA.

Edit after reading about 20 top level comments: my initial idea was more or less right, my gotcha sense was wrong.

This exchange reminds me of this sketch:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9kB7Byoe_Uo

I should write a blog post about the philosophy of sketch comedy or something.

I would read that! Make sure you link it in the Friday fun thread if you do.

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