site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   13724 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 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.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

From The (In)Effective Altruism Diaries: The Case Of Centi-Millionaire Marxist

You possibly already heard about James Cox Chambers Jr.

He is character that would be laughed at and rejected outright in any creative writing class as crude, primitive and unfunny caricature of leftist written by hate filled right wing bigot.

And he is real.

Descendant of long line of distinguished WASP's. As close to hereditary aristocracy as you can get in today's world. Wikipedia article of your own is now what noble title used to be.

(Yes, pure Anglo Saxon ancestry, no documented Jewish ancestors, if you are looking for this thing, you can be disappointed)

Who is, since early age, dedicated Marxist devoted to fighting for revolutionary cause.

Around age 12, Chambers was introduced to Marxist literature by a teacher, including Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, something which made a lasting impression, although by his account, his focus on political activism has ebbed and flowed throughout his life.

Now, his means are not negligible. 250M hard bourgeois bucks is nothing to sneer at.

Chambers owned a portion of Cox Enterprises until divesting from the company in 2023, resulting in a payout estimated by Rolling Stone of at least $250 million.

Distinguished revolutionaries in the past used cash with great efficiency as weapon to hasten the demise of capitalist world.

Comrade Cox-Chambers is not one of them. In 30 years of struggle, he really achieved nothing much worth showing. The Berkshire Communists, The Berkshire People's Gym, The Butterfly Collective etc. are not up there with The Sealed Train.

Neither are Dakota pipeline protests or Cop City protests.

At least the Georgia commune members had some fun, while it lasted.

Many former commune members recall in a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone that little happened on the commune aside from rampant psychedelic usage and that Chambers pressured commune members to take part in polyamory/free love relationships.

This shows once again weakness of premise of effective altruism and 80,000 hours movement that money alone is sufficient to change the world. It is not specific to communism/leftism, many cases of right wing money wasted in even more pointless way.

Now, if you are inclined to laugh at the outgroup, show how would you do better. Your homework, your hypothetical scenario for today is:

You are given 250M in USD.

Your mission is to promote COMMUNISM. Not some petty bourgeois hippy nonsense, but real, scientific and authentic Marx-Lenin-Stalin thought.

How would you get the greatest bang for the buck, how would you most efficiently use capitalist cash to bring forward glorious communist future?

Show your work. Best entries will be rewarded with eternal revolutionary glory and virtual Stalin Golden Prize.

centi-millionaire

hecto-millionaire

centi-millionaire

Sorry, but this is the officially used term.

100M+ net worth put you safely above the rules of classical grammar.

Just wait until you hear about biannual.

On a sidenote, I'm going to start introducing myself as a centimillionaire now, or maybe a microbillionaire.

I still do a double-take everyone time Americans say 'biweekly'.

Biweekly means twice a week, you silly people! We have a perfectly good word, fortnightly, that means 'every two weeks'.

I've never seen fortnight used like that.

What's wrong with bimonthly? Okay, it means something slightly different, but it's close enough for practical purposes.

'Fortnight' is a normal, everyday word in Australia. In America I was shocked that people responded as if it was quaint. I hear it's in A Game of Thrones, so to some people it sounds archaic or medieval?

Yes, over here it's a vocab word; something you would expect to see in Shakespeare, like "wherefore" or "betwixt".

I wouldn't quite put it to the level of Shakespeare words. Fortnight wasn't a common everyday word when I was a kid in the 90s, but most high schoolers would have been familiar with the word and what it meant, if memory serves, likely due to its usage in history class when reading documents relating to Revolutionary War or the Civil War. Which were only about 150-250 years ago, not 400 like Shakespeare.

I do wonder if kids these days know that Fortnite is a play on that word and what that word means, or if they just think it's some nonsense made-up word.

US perspective here, but in business usage it’s common to use “bi-weekly” to mean every two weeks and “semi-monthly” to mean twice a month. Common example: Wages paid in 26 bi-weekly pay periods vs. 24 semi-monthly pay periods.

I once had a middle aged female British client brusquely correct me on this usage. She invoked “THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH” and everything. I’m not sure if she was just annoyed at me asking her for more paystubs or if there’s actually a difference in usage. I think she was suggesting something like bi-monthly meaning twice a month whereas I would understand that to mean once every two months.

There's some ambiguity in the etymological inference: Is it '(bi-month)ly' (as in, 'occurs once in a period of time comprising two months') or 'bi-(monthly)' ('twice monthly'). 'Bi-(monthly)' seems more intuitive to me, but (at least in the US), it seems I'm in the minority. I certainly wouldn't have the temerity to 'correct' someone else's usage.

Though either way, I think there's enough confusion that you basically have to just guess from context clues what 'bi-[time period]ly' means. This is certainly the worst of both worlds.

Huh. Never thought of it like that. I always thought it was strange that McDonald's has an item called a "double quarter pounder." You mean a half a pounder? "Can I get a double half a pounder, please?" It's a perversion of language.

I'd say there is a meaningful difference between two quarter-pound patties and one half-pound patty.

I always thought it was strange that McDonald's has an item called a "double quarter pounder."

Isn't that two patties that each weigh a quarter pound?

Yeah. Which is a half a pounder.

I think there's value in specifying that it's two patties stacked, instead of one giant one.

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