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 -
Right, but what I mean is that it's not necessarily dysfunctional on the part of the viewer. You made the remark that "they’re the young men who donate their hard earned money to them on stream" -- but for most people the occasional $5 tip doesn't amount to a very high-stakes donation. (I donated $5 once to someone through that "Buy Me a Coffee" page because a supplement he had been advertising actually solved something I was dealing with.
I agree with you but I imagine your intuition on what's reasonable from Clavicular's is very different. Observably there are a lot of "looksmaxxing interventions" that don't cost much in terms of time or money but are enormously effective.
For example: I got turned onto Vitamin A by a friend's girlfriend I incorrectly pegged as ten years younger than she actually was. You can get adapalene over the counter or you can get a simple script from your doctor for tretinoin. I ran out of mine a few weeks ago and when I resumed my friends immediately complimented me on how good I looked, have I lost weight? It's not an extreme intervention and has basically no significant side-effects. (Tretinoin can dry out the skin so you use a little lotion or you can go with a lower dose Vit A supplement, it's really not a big deal.) And this is talked about on looksmaxxing forums. Maybe you haven't heard about it before, in which case, the looksmaxxers would feel satisfied that they are offering something above and beyond something "everybody knows". Or maybe you still don't feel like doing any of this (above and beyond the immediate excuses that you're at your desk, you're busy right now, you're intrigued but will look into it etc.). In which case, the looksmaxxers would feel satisfied that they are cultivating a virtue that materially improves their good looks that most people are not pursuing.
Imagine there were $10 bills on the sidewalk, so you tried to encourage your friends to start picking them up. And they said: "Everybody knows already about the $10 bills," "$10 really isn't that much," "Money isn't all that important". I'm certainly not going to say you need to spend all day picking up bills to the exclusion of everything else, but...
More options
Context Copy link