site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   17371 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026

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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I tried the first Murderbot book and didn't much like it. It was very, uh, without being too uncharitable or invoking a @WhiningCoil rant, "female coded." The whole "found family" thing and the fact that progressives can read whatever gender politics they want into an asexual combat droid who presents as gruff and hard and just cannot with these stupid humans but actually has a soft gooey core is why they consider it leftist.

These people need to read them some Ursula Le Guin.

But Children of Time is one of my favorite modern SF books, so we're gonna fight.

Okay, not really. But - I will concede that Adrian Tchaikovsky is probably left-leaning. He cultivates a fairly inoffensive and apolitical social media presence, though what hints he has dropped indicate that he's generally on the progressive spectrum. His books are mostly not didactic or obvious in their politics, but again, tend to be vaguely progressive in their sentiments.

However, while I agree that the "solution" in Children of Time, forced genetic behavioral modification, was kind of horrific, it also made sense from the spiders' POV, and the humans were mostly villains escaping from an authoritarian system. I didn't read this as Tchaikovsky saying something about humanity's true inherent nature, but rather it was about these particular humans presenting an existential threat to the spiders, and the spiders coming up with a solution that wasn't "One of us must exterminate the other." It was actually a rather clever and very sf-ish solution.

I don't see this as particularly "progressive" coded, unless anything that doesn't end in military conflict is "progressive." I don't see overcoming disgust as inherently progressive coded. Maybe you think becoming comfortable with sentient spiders was supposed to be a metaphor for becoming comfortable with gays and trans, or with Muslim immigrants? I certainly didn't read it that way.

Also, spiders are fucking cool.

The rest of the series is also pretty good, though not as good as the first book.

Of course it makes sense from the spider's POV, but the final part of the conflict is from Holsten's, and his internal monologue is about rejecting his brutish human nature and meekly accepting his new spider overlords instead of going down swinging at a time where they don't know anything about the spider's plans, just that they boarding the ship and injecting everyone with something making people catatonic.

Like, I enjoy his sci-fi worldbuilding and nonhumans, but I would consider his books extremely obvious in their politics, especially because he has real trouble writing compelling villains that don't come across as political pointscoring. Though Chlidren of Time isn't nearly the worst at this, except the embarrassing opening NUN cameo.

Red, green and blue mars are pretty lefty and very good. Maybe not modern left enough, but having (at least three) main characters rant uninterrupted about the evils of capitalism for several pages should count.

But Children of Time is one of my favorite modern SF books, so we're gonna fight.

Have you noticed that Tchaikovsky has kind of collapsed into telling a single story lately? I finished Shroud recently, and it seems like he's using the AND THEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS AN EMERGENT COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS trope more frequently.

YMMV - I am extremely high on the Tyrant Philosophers, though that's fantasy so maybe it doesn't apply.

My biggest criticism of Tchaikovsky is that his narrative voice is kind in a sour spot; it is strong enough that it stands out and overshadows character voice, but it's not really distinctive enough to carry weight (contrast with, idk, Neal Stephenson).

Tyrant Philosophers

It's coming up in my reading backlog, can you elevator pitch it so I can building anticipation?

Tchaikovsky churns out novels at Brandon Sanderson speed. He's a better writer than Sanderson, but it is starting to show.

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