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.

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Can you stop with this nonsense please? He founded Nvidia, he navigated it strategically through every industry transition, proactively shaping them, he made a gamer hardware shop into the most valuable company on Earth and the kingmaker in the AGI race, he clearly intends to keep it in the running through all future transitions, and he understands Chinese competition very well. He knows that they're in a tough spot and Mellanox is not an adequate counter to Huawei's networking. He's trying to save not just his company but your asses, because he's existentially invested in them.
When he says that he's playing an infinite game rather than just chasing a quick buck that'd leave his headquarters irrelevant in under 20 years, this deserves infinitely more faith than your jaded dismissals of “CEO boilerplate”. You need to acknowledge that your standards of judgement and your theory of incentives are only fit for business done by inferior men. People are not created equal, opinions of people are not of equal worth, Jensen's opinion >>>>> median American's opinion.
Oh the high and mighty. The dude ran a company making hardware for gamers and crypto miners and got lucky that it ended up being civilizational important and that they bet on EUV big. He is by all measures obviously an excellent business man, impressively ahead of the game on this latest DRAM shortage. But none of that is evidence of some kind of long term view. Spare us the Ubermench talk, I thought we were supposed to be the nazis in decline.
It's impressive how you can make a $4.6T business in the US just being a lucky huckster, huh. Just like you can dance into becoming the president of a superpower while being a bumbling TV personality, rather than claw your way up over decades, starting from the flea-infested cave in Shaanxi. Blessed land, Manifest Destiny, a people chosen by Providence itself. I guess any mediocrity ought to feel invested in protecting it, then. Where else do you play and win in such lotteries.
But I don't share this theory. I don't think the US allows you to play on God Mode, and I think Jensen is not just an excellent businessman, and certainly not a “treasonous worm”. He is an industrial titan like Rockefeller or Carnegie, he genuinely has a long-term vision, and he demonstrably executes on it. America was made great by such men, and if it declines, it will be over forgetting their value.
Nazis were wrong about innate racial superiority. Most people are mediocre, whether Aryan or not. This doesn't mean that Nietzsche or Confucius were wrong about the existence of specific superior individuals.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link