site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   29483 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 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.

Bench press is a training exercise, not a useful combat skill. It is not a bad training exercise, but it is a middling one. Most weight lifts are. Combat itself is where male advantage is at its height. If there was a woman 5% taller, 5% heavier, 5% better than me on bench and squat, I'd estimate she is probably a professional athlete, and secondly, has almost no chance against me in a wrestling or judo match. Boxing maybe higher if she is a boxer, because striking is not my best attribute.

And I am not near my peak skill wise. Things are just how they are.

Bench press is a training exercise, not a useful combat skill. It is not a bad training exercise, but it is a middling one. Most weight lifts are. Combat itself

Maybe but that is a lot harder to empirically examine given that real life fisticuffs basically does not exist anymore. Even in simulated rule governed combat like judo and wrestling, there's not many serious cases of elite judo woman vs couch potato guy to be examining. To begin with if untrained couch potato guy is participating in a wrestling or judo event, he probably isn't actually typical untrained couch potato guy. Because that guy is at home on his couch instead of participating in combat sports. But a quick search found that yes, trained woman can beat men, not just couch potato men but presumably beginner/intermediate men.

In 1959, she won a medal at a YMCA judo tournament while disguised as a man, but had to return it after acknowledging that she was a woman

Here's a pro MMA woman who beat two would be robbers with knives. This is apparently a trained female grappler vs an untrained man

The only empirical thing we really have to go off here is the bench presses, deadlifts, curls, etc cause those deal with raw numbers and are actually comparable. And those, unlike the hypothetical thought experiment of what you think might happen, do point to trained intermediate women >.untrained men in many areas including some real life examples. The data is imperfect, the rarity of examples isn't great, but it definitely seems better than a completely imagined scenario like your argument as evidence.

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