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 -
In the short/mid term I agree. Precious metals have a pretty good track record of weathering financial crises, and given the lack of fiscal responsibility being exhibited right now, at some point a huge amount of capital is going to be looking for a new safe haven.
The tricky part though is finding new places to park assets long term, the segment of the market that used to be dominated by 30 year treasuries. Each alternative store of value has its corresponding black swan events that could wipe you out:
Gold/Silver -The discovery of a large new lode made available through new tech.
Bitcoin/crypto -Large scale internet outage and/or network fragmentation (ie the US internet is no longer able to talk to Asia for some period of time). Anything that disrupts the continuity of the blockchain. I think this is a much larger threat to crypto than than shor's algorithm.
Index funds -Because they cover the Western economy as a whole, they are highly susceptible to geopolitical risk. A major shift in the geopolitical centers of power would likely take its toll on these markets.
I guess maybe long term a basket of commodities with some real estate sprinkled in might work, but that's not nearly as fungible and lacks a consistent track record. It'll be interesting to see what people do.
I’ve followed the Golden Butterfly portfolio’s asset allocation since 2017. 20% Gold, 20% cash, 20% 30-year treasuries, 20% small cap value and 20% S&P500.
More options
Context Copy link
Eventually (and I'm not going to hold my breath) the asteroid mining folks seem likely to strike it rich.
This has happened before- literally half the silver that has ever been mined was extracted in one lump sum by the conquistadors in the immediate aftermath of pizzarro’s conquest. It caused gigantic inflation in Europe.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link