site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   28144 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

You are trolling. A faux-naive/faux-serious description of "Richard Hanania, writer of 'The Origins of Woke'" could be a little flourish one time, twice makes it pretty obvious you're trying to build a schtick.

It's a great way to establish that these aren't "leftist concern trolls" but conservative aligned names with proven history in right wing spaces. Hanania, Ben Shapiro, Seth Dillon, etc are all established conservative leaning names who are against this rising Nazi radicalism.

  • -20

Yes, you are a different kind of troll from a leftist concern troll, but not a particularly original or interesting one. I notice no rebuttal on the other points?

I notice no rebuttal on the other points?

Go see other comments I've written on this replying to similar points. That's what I've been told to do by mods before instead of reposting the same thing over and over in response to different users, even if it's a rebuttal to the same argument from those users. There's a lot of people trying to make these similar arguments so if you want to know my views, you'll have to check out the prior responses from me.

  • -18

For my sins, I checked through all your responses. You provide no response to my point that describing Gaines' employment with DHS as somehow linking him to the Republican Party is dishonest, and you haven't addressed Torba in a single comment. For what it's worth, I don't think you're Darwin - Darwin at least tried.

You know I get like 30+ replies every time I check back here? I do not have the time in my busy life to read every single part of every single comment, yet alone reply to them all. I glance through and pick a few.

For what it's worth, I don't think you're Darwin - Darwin at least tried.

Meaningless, I don't know who that is so it's not worth anything.

If you're trying to imply that I'm some other poster for disagreement then that just seems odd. Do you not think there are lots of people in the world who don't share 100% of every belief this site holds? Is TheMotte really such a circlejerk that voicing major disagreements is seen as an oddity only done by a few?

  • -14

People here just like to call out non-obvious insights RE: poster identity. It's a good enough gamble - makes you sound sharp when you do it, would make you sound extra sharp if it should be proven correct (does that ever happen?), and cannot be conclusively proven wrong anyways.

(does that ever happen?)

TequilaMockingbird admitted being Hlynka, apparently.

Hm. Do you happen to have a source for that?

Link

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats