site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2702 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

It’s a current trend on TikTok / Instagram to post pictures of yourself from 2016. Next month, in early February, we will celebrate our own 10th anniversary of the Culture War Thread. What are we doing to mark the occasion?

Scott made his request for a culture war thread on Feb 14th of 2016 https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/02/14/ot43-roses-are-thread/

This is one of the oldest culture war threads I could find from reddit (and it might actually be the oldest):

https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/470zk9/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_february_22/

It is weird seeing comments from myself in the thread. About a third of the usernames in there are deleted. Some of the other ones I hovered over are suspended. No one else I could find from there is over here on themotte. Was anyone else there for the inception of the culture war threads? Did you just have a different username back then?

I can't help but feel old. But I was young then and am arguably still young now. My opinions have hilariously not changed an inch from back then. I guess that could be good or bad.

Shame I missed the halcyon days. I showed up maybe a year or two after the migration to the subreddit.

Ha, "halycon days" more like the red hot opening of the culture war. No one had any mental immunities to culture war stuff. We didn't really know how to talk to each other without getting pissed off. People kept trying to throw around newly discovered superweapons, or unwrap all the old ones that should have been held back for special occasions (racist and nazi accusations). We had an entire subreddit dedicated to hating us. A wiki admin and rational wiki owner set on smearing us. Scott felt the need to discuss culture war topics, not because such articles paid his bills, but because the ideas had infected and ruined his friend groups.

I feel like the culture war has gotten better in that we have figured out how to sort of deal with it, the superweapons have lost their effectiveness. The fanatics aren't always running the show, cooler heads are getting more attention. But its also gotten worse because it spread to the normies and out of academia and limited intellectual circles. And the normies are willing to go on the streets and get violent.

I feel like the culture war has gotten better in that we have figured out how to sort of deal with it, the superweapons have lost their effectiveness. The fanatics aren't always running the show, cooler heads are getting more attention. But its also gotten worse because it spread to the normies and out of academia and limited intellectual circles.

IMO, God-willing, we're just ahead of the curve here --- early adopters of the Culture War, if you will. I think this is a generic narrative arc of an aggressive meme. I'm not even quite sure how to define the current one (it's been difficult to name, even, but feels motivated by the existence of the Internet, among other forces), but there are past examples like "what if we decided we didn't have a king, but that we're defined by Frenchness?" or "what if we used this new printing press to openly question the moral authority of the Pope?". Both of those took hold among the masses and caused decades of conflict (large hot wars, even), before a new lasting coexistence equilibrium was established.

I feel like I've seen some signs that we might have hit peak Culture War. Flame wars aren't edgy anymore, they're almost passe in my IRL social circles. We're re-learning the wisdom of not discussing politics or religion in polite company. The CW ideas aren't new to most of the populace because they've been everywhere for years, and there are fewer newcomers to the memes to become radicalized torchbearers. Maybe things are going to start cooling down.

Agreed, there is also something uncool and a little gross about someone that is very clearly mind rotten from culture war stuff.

I've only encountered a few in real life, but they have given me the ick every time.

It will probably make some people worse in the short term until they start figuring out why they have lost most of their friends.

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