site banner
PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   22321 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 1, 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.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

From January 2022 through October 2024, it was revised downward 21 times averaging 50k, and revised upward 13 times, averaging 25k. So, for every three times they revised downward, they revised upward twice, and across those average five revisions, they overestimated by 20k per month.

I picked the start date because that's when the numbers started to look normal after COVID nonsense. I picked the end date because of a certain something that happened in November 2024. It's even worse if you start from 2023, because from 1/23 through 8/24 (the vibes were shifting), we had 4 upward revisions and 16 downward revisions, averaging -36k per month.

The numbers were cooked, constantly, to make Biden look good.

From January 2022 through October 2024, it was revised downward 21 times averaging 50k, and revised upward 13 times, averaging 25k. So, for every three times they revised downward, they revised upward twice, and across those average five revisions, they overestimated by 20k per month.

Okay, I'm glad we agree it's not the same direction every time.

The numbers were cooked, constantly, to make Biden look good.

Huh?

Trump I, Jan 2017 - Dec 2020: Average revision -11k. 24 down, 24 up.

Biden, Jan 2021 - Dec 2024: Average revision +25k. 22 down, 26 up.

Trump II, Jan 2025 - Jul 2025 (latest data with 3rd revision available): Average revision -70k. 6 down, 0 up.

We've got a pretty balanced number of up and down revisions during Trump I and Biden. The average adjustment during Biden's term was up, and during Trump's terms it's down.

So if you think the initial numbers are cooked and the revision is more accurate, then in fact the cooked numbers were unfavorable to Biden and favorable to Trump.

If you think the initial numbers are more accurate and the revision is cooked, then it's not clear why it's even necessary to cook the revision. It should be just as easy to cook the initial number instead, and then there's no pesky revisions that people can point to.

I picked the start date because that's when the numbers started to look normal after COVID nonsense.

Is the BLS not able to cook the numbers due to COVID?

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