Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
Where can I find a (much more) left-wing community similar to The Motte? /r/slatestarcodex is close but obviously intentionally tries to avoid Culture War topics (spurring the creation of this place in the first place).
By left-wing, I solely mean on social issues ("progressive liberalism"), like immigration, race, sex, gender, gender identity, democracy, rule of law (which I guess is now a pro-left position in 2026 or something). On economics stuff a range of views would be fine. I'm a pro-free market pro-capitalist person, myself rather than a socialist. There's /leftypol/ but those are essentially all communists who are pro-authoritarianism and all of that and who are often even right-wing on social issues.
There are tons of Twitter clusters full of very smart center-left people who agree with me on everything but it's not quite what I'm looking for.
Every time I venture forth from themotte, I am immediately punched with the reality of just how terrible the norms are in other locations.
Yes, the motte lets people argue that <ethnic group> is inherently negative, or that the usa should just do away with elections. But every other place either has no users or worse norms.
Some of them even have both!
This is what I was trying to get at with @ArjinFerman. The modal Internet community is profoundly disinterested in things like “freedom of speech” or “reasoned debate.” It can be expected to make everything as comfortable as possible for its users. Or it loses out to a more filtered, more flattering space.
If that userbase is remotely young, affluent, and left-leaning, the filter will reinforce those traits.
Before my Reddit account had been banned years ago I sometimes would drop in on occasion and debate in PPD and I swear, none of the mods knew what a “debate” actually was, as they intrinsically produce friction and stir up tense conflict between competing ideas.
One of them in particular was so nitpicky and selective as well as thin skinned, on one occasion I’d had enough and just choose to roast and antagonize the shit out of her and give her a taste of her own medicine. If you were too lighthearted and cavalier she’d say “Don’t troll,” and would accuse you of being insincere. If you were too pointed and logical she’d say “Be civil,” and would accuse you of being aggressive. And she’d do this to everybody she disagreed with. On this particular day she threw her hat into the ring and tried engaging my argument so I replied back to her “Don’t troll.” And then a bunch of us started attacking her as a shit moderator and we would up getting permabanned.
Turned out like 6 months later, there was so much protest from people she’d been removed as a mod and to my knowledge nobody had seen her since. I rarely spend that much time online though. Good riddance either way.
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