site banner

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.

2
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.

Pitch: identify male communism influencers and try very hard to boost their sex appeal to insane levels. The rest follows from there.

Details: they need to have real street backgrounds, like be artists or bartenders or woodshop owners and show promise at building a following. Then I would start hosting these conventions/parties that are communist adjacent that are really just a cover to invite these guys to hang out and give minor talks. Very important: ensure these things are like 70% female and plant a few very hot women to be all over the influencers. Leak some photos of them together getting drunk. In the early days the goal is to make these influencers think they're God's gift to women.

Once they're properly motivated and thinking with their dicks + feel the communism flow through them, from there, continue growing the conventions/parties, always maintain the high female to male ratio. Make the parties invitation only but in a hipster kind of way (you need to know it even exists). The parties need some kernel of grassroots appeal to actually take off and not be lame. Has to be something fresh. You can hire women at first to come to these but at some point you need something sensual or cool that brings women out willingly. Things like climate justice or black lives matter are tired. This is probably the hardest part though you can try a bunch of concepts with $250mm to burn through.

Anyway as these grow bigger gradually make the communist male influencers more center-stage, giving keynotes, etc. always ensuring they're surrounded by tons of women and that their high sex appeal is not in question. And start making it easier for wannabe communist guys to come to these and maybe get laid.

I give it 5-10 years before this counter-culture becomes a political movement with real weight.

Taking notes, but substitute transhumanism for communism. Unfortunately, I don't happen to have $250m to spare, but I can manage something at a dive bar and bribe the local bar bunnies to show up.