This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).
As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.
These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.
Quality Contributions to the Main Motte
Contributions for the week of March 30, 2026
Contributions for the week of April 6, 2026
- "I think Terry Pratchett is the atheist version of C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien."
- "But Halo... Halo was magic."
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Notes -
It's a shame I didn't see Amadan's comment while it was fresh. I'm almost tempted to AAQC it again, I think it's that good.
The one thing that we ask of Mottizens is the ability to engage in civil discourse, including on controversial topics. Especially on controversial topics. We make allowances for the fact that this is a rather big ask, especially by wider internet standards, but it's also the whole fucking point of this place. You can say just about anything, as long as you say it politely, and back up inflammatory claims proactively. What counts as inflammatory? Now isn't that a debate for the ages? I'd like to use the "reasonable member of the public" doctrine, but that's got more loopholes than the factory where they make basketball hoops.
This is fine. It really is. To channel Sam Altman (hiss hiss), the Motte is nothing without its users. The users wouldn't be here if us mods didn't do the unpleasant job of occasionally cracking a few skulls. I don't like doing that. I doubt any of us do, and that's in part because we were negatively selected for that tendency. We do it because even the clearest, easiest-going set of rules on the planet won't stand up and defend themselves. Entropy is a bitch.
Does anyone think I like the anti-Indian stereotypes floating around on the web, or that surfaces even here on occasion? Hah. You wish. I console myself with the (true) fact that I am very, very far from the modal Indian, and that the complaints usually lobbed against them aren't applicable to me (assuming we're talking about something with more merit than generic accusations of shitting on streets. And when the criticism does encompass me? Including for characteristics I really can't change? Well, the Indian Subcontinent probably selected for thick skin, for protection against malaria if nothing else.
Very few things written here are truly worth getting heated about, I say, even acknowledging that I've lost my cool in the past (albeit for other reasons, anti-Indian sentiment is rather low on the list of things that reliably rile me up). And well, on the flip side, getting a warning or ban on a niche internet forum is not the end of the world. Go read a book. Touch grass. Feed your kids, or go make kids.
Digression aside: something that more people should know is that if you are genuinely uncertain if a planned post of yours clears the bar, you can just... DM us. The mod mail exists. You can ping the mods and ask, "hey, is this okay to share?" Almost nobody does this. More people should. We should probably put this next to the rules.
Would you be willing to expand on this a little at some point? I've been grappling with some issues around this personally and some perspective from your side of things might help a lot.
When I was younger, I lived in several places that had notable Indian minorities, and that continued in college due to being in a technical major. Several of my closest friends in those times were first or second generation immigrants. In most cases, they weren't just American, but they felt more American than me. They flew the flag at home, played sports in school, participated in neighborhood cookouts (with mildly weird limits depending on where they came from originally), and did all the things you'd expect from somebody who really liked being in America. One of the best trap shooters I'd ever met hadn't ever fired a gun until he got his citizenship, but he started coming to meets as soon as he could because, in his words, "I'm an American now". Hell, in some ways it was aspirational for somebody like me. I figured that if families from a country as poor as India could manage to live the American dream, maybe a dumb redneck like me could too.
Lately, I've been interacting with the Indian diaspora in the US again and it feels completely different. It's mercenary and extractive. They all seem to want to make bank and go home, or terraform the surrounding area into India-but-not-in-India. The families don't try to integrate or assimilate at all. Kids keep their own cliques in school or go to private schools. Community events are almost entirely held within the diaspora.
Do you have any idea what's going on? It's caused a measure of cultural whiplash for me. I can't tell if it's a change in culture in India, or different social classes and subcultures immigrating, or changing views towards America, or what, but fuck me if it's not a noticeable difference.
Not to be a single-note piano, but "the Great Awokening" seems like a plausible culprit for what you've observed. It's just identitarianism forcefully asserting itself. This, basically, and then this (PDF warning). "Assimilation" used to be a goal; then it got dumped into a bucket with "colonialism" leading to the crazed perception that Indians (or whomever) who travel to Europe or the Americas are being "colonized" if they assimilate.
I have met a fair few immigrants who are actually quite insistent that their children assimilate, but in many cases this seems to backfire somewhat. There are definitely people out there who prefer to feel attached to the culture and practices of their ancestors, for various reasons, despite being geographically remote. That I am a rootless cosmopolitan does benefit me in some ways, but there are definitely times when I wish I had been better suited to becoming a key figure in a community of comparatively limited importance beyond its own boundaries.
I'd be hesitant to blame Woke for this, really, though I've already plead general ignorance on trends on the ground (I'm not physically there, and I don't interact with the Indian diaspora on an intentional basis). Sure, identity politics was enthusiastically adopted by a specific clade of diasporans, but there are fewer true believers than you might think. People will do anything to improve their odds on college admissions screens, and this is hardly unique to Indians. In fact, they're in a particularly awkward spot.
I think @Testing is more likely to be right here, though that's a low confidence claim. Then there's reaction-formation: if anti-Indian sentiment is on the rise in the States, the natural thing is to band together. My impression is that the worst of it is mostly restricted to X and other social media cesspools, the average Indian on the ground in the US hasn't really noticed active discrimination. In the UK? We're still very much model minorities, the usual vitriol is reserved mostly for other (sometimes visually indistinguishable) South Asians.
As an Enlightened Centrist™ , I blame both the left and the right for this. In particular, the unsophisticated view that race is what matters rather than culture.
People respond to incentives. In the recent past (1980-2010 maybe?), a lot of racism/harassment/ostracization were predicated on culture and behavior. If you act like a normal American, wave American flags, and try to fit in then people would treat you as a normal American. If you can't speak English, roam around in gangs of your own race, play foreign music, shoplift from stores, etc, you're a dirty foreigner. Therefore, immigrants were incentivized to assimilate, because they could improve their reception and treatment. Being bullied is a negative reinforcement for being unamerican, therefore it incentivizes Americanness. Of course there were also a bunch of genuine racists who hate people because of their skin color and nothing you can do can fix that, but they have always been the minority. Most racists use skin color as a proxy for things they actually care about like crime and culture, so more patriotic minorities can usually avoid their ire by being "one of the good ones."
Woke tore this down. All immigrants are good, all racism is bad. Fewer people outwardly discriminate or criticize immigrants for being foreign. Importantly, this happened mostly on the margins. The more kind and well-intentioned people who legitimately were concerned with people getting along and reducing crime rates and whatnot were the most likely to turn woke or at least stay silent to avoid being cancelled. Meanwhile, the hardcore racists who actually hate skin colors stayed where they were. If you are an immigrant, the naive left will love you no matter what you do, and the naive right will hate you no matter what you do, and there's way fewer people in the center who will actually vary their treatment of you than there used to be. So the incentive to change is way smaller. Negative reinforcement doesn't accomplish anything if it's inflicted randomly instead of in response to specific behaviors.
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If I have to blindly guess, it might be because of visa reasons. If you have citizenship, you know you are going to stay there. You will meet your neighbours, relax a little and take part in community events and lay down roots.
Getting citizenship in USA has gotten harder for Indians. If you are on visa and at any moment you can get randomly kicked out then you will be trying to make bank. There is no point in planning long term if you are not going to stay long term. You would only celebrate the mandatory major festivals which would be Indian festivals from India. I suppose if someone gets incredibly lucky and even gets citizenship, the habits stay. In the working age demographic, most Indians in USA are not citizens.
You need to be an American citizen to be an American after all.
There is also another filter, Indians know how much harder getting citizenship in USA is compared to other places.
Only the people most driven by money would try to enter USA currently. The people who want to live somewhere first world may be deciding to move to Germany or UK.
Moving to Germany or the UK would be easier for the typical professional Indian looking to emigrate, but my strong impression is that the US remains the first choice. Not just because of the pay, though you're correct that it's a major component. It's just far from trivial to achieve, even for those not bottlenecked or gate-kept by professional licensing like I am.
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I'm not sure what I can add, really. Perhaps it's clearer if I specify that I'm not like most Indians in India, or even most UMC, well-educated Indians. I don't share their politics, their ideologies, or even much of the culture. Back home, the number of people I considered to be on a similar intellectual wavelength could be counted on my fingers. I wouldn't even need both hands.
Abroad? I don't know dawg. I know a surprisingly small number of Indians in the UK, courtesy of living up north, where brown skin can be a mild curiosity. I don't even seek them out when I see them. In the US? How would I meet them by a route that isn't an online exchange?
I look Indian. I don't sound Indian. I don't act particularly Indian, beyond a fondness for biryani. I have little interest in, or engagement with, any popular form of Indian culture or media from home. I'm a Bay Area rat in spirit. I know more about American cultural trends and politics than I know about India, let alone the UK. I'm happy keeping it that way, unless I have a pragmatic reason to do otherwise.
https://www.themotte.org/post/565/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/116844?context=8#context
That's my post popular post on the Motte. Ever. So I can only presume that, if I were lucky enough to be in America, you'd describe me in much the same way as those other Indians you first knew. I envy them. They're living the life I wish I had. I consider myself to be a temporarily estranged American, by misfortune of birth and circumstances outside my control. But if wishing were horses, I'd have given PETA a heart attack and paved the Bering Strait with equine corpses to get there. Right now, I impatiently wait for future opportunities, while feeling barely suppressed rage at how my options were curtailed.
No clue. I don't even have solid speculation to share. I haven't been in the States after 9/11, and it might just be random chance that you just ran into people who happened to be less ideologically motivated and more in it for the money. To be fair, I'm also in it for the money too, American doctors make salaries that make me salivate, even after moving to the UK.
Do you still plan on getting to America one day? And if so where would you intend to settle?
Plan? More like aspire. If the problem with my med school (they've been lazy about specific American accreditation, and the accreditors just as lazy) gets resolved within the next 3-4 years, it's quite likely I'll give the USMLE. If the problem solves itself later (and I'm a senior psychiatrist) then it's theoretically possible for me to seek to transfer my credentials without the USMLE and another bloody residency program.
At the end of the day, I don't have much control over the timeline. I'm also already in training, I have a good enough shot of progressing further in my career elsewhere, and the thought of sitting down and grinding for yet more competitive exams when I might have a wife and kids does not feel great. Even worse, AI is nipping at my heels, so it might become an entirely moot proposition by then.
But if I have the luxury of choice? Then California, baby. Or Texas. Or most of the US, really, probably excluding Alaska. Scotland is cold enough for me.
Obligatory link to comparison of state freedom levels
(Ratings are based on the situation in 2022, but are measured relative to μ and σ for 2000–2022, not just for 2022.)
Interactive global map of average daily maximum temperature on a monthly basis
While I appreciate the effort, they don't call it the Land of the Free for nothing. I'm sure the lowest ranked state would spank the entirety of the UK.
And I suspect that the climate map is slightly misleading in terms of presentation, if you don't carefully compare across seasons, you'll miss the dramatic temperature shifts seen in some parts.
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Can you change my view that Biryani is just crappy fried rice?
Biryani shouldn't really be like fried rice. The texture is different (biryani rice is less likely to stick together than fried rice), and of course the flavors are very different. What they have around me (I'm in Denver) is mostly Hyderabad style biryani, which is spicy and has a delicious fragrance that fried rice never really would have. My general advice on where to find good biryani is to see if there's anywhere that tends to have lots of Indian immigrants eating there. It might not be the best on the planet, but immigrants tend to eat at restaurants that are doing the cuisine correctly in my experience.
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Many cultures have a 'brothy meaty rice' dish that needs a ton of effort to get right. When done right, that dish is the best. When done wrong, it is crappy fried rice.
Eg:
Each dish is labor intensive and needs experience to get right. I've had the privilege of trying some of the best versions of each dish. If your Biryani tastes like crappy fried rice, it is crappy Biryani. Same for Paella and Chicken Rice.
Amen
I got sick of bad Biryani in the US and made it myself (alt link). No humility for this one. Took a ton of effort, and I bet it was the best Biryani in the city that day.
I now understand why restaurant Biryani sucks. Unless you're a dedicated Biryani shop (which only happens in India), you can't justify the effort it takes to make good Biryani. It took me about 2 days, start to finish.
@self_made_human , that's a war crime.
This variation is meaningful.
Lucknowi Biryani (Canonical North Indian Biryani) is meant to be aromatic, umami and fragrant. Hyderabadi Biryani (Canonical South Indian Biryani) is meant to be spicy, indulgent and saucier. I made Hyderabadi Biryani, it is my favorite. The other variations involve different types of rice (Kerala), adding potatoes (Bengali), and raisins (Karachi. This is haram).
Unfortunately, Indian restaurants in the west are mostly run by Punjabi & Bangla people. Neither regions are good at Biryani.
We have loads of biryani shops in the Bay Area, fwiw. I don't go to them because as a rule they look absolutely filthy, but we do have them.
Nope. Havent had great biryani in the Bay area. I'm an expert on the matter.
Great udipi food (madhurai idli). Good Pakistani food (zareens). Good experimental Indian (copra). Surprisingly acceptable marathi food (pav bhaji food truck, puranpoli) acceptable indo-chinese (inchins bamboo garden).
There are a few schizo places that are a 8/10 or 2/10 and no in-between. Highly unreliable, but pretty good on a good day. Eg- Aaha in Mission for Telugu/chettinad food. They make the least bad biryani in SF on a good day. Let's just say their sanitation standards are in line with the rest of the mission.
No standout north Indian or mughlai places that I know of.
P.s: while I'm talking about Indian places in the Bay. Fuck Rooh. Bad food and expensive.
I'm talking San Jose specifically, but regardless I'm not suggesting it's any good. Only that we do have dedicated biryani shops.
The lamb biryani at Dish & Dash used to be pretty good but has declined over the years
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That looks like some pretty legit biryani. Could I trouble you to write up a recipe?
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You must have had bad biryani. This is understandable, since the best stuff is only truly available in India.
Even in the UK, I've struggled to find anything as good as what I was used to at home. The best I've found is acceptable, it's biryani-shaped and roughly tastes like biryani. And then the "Indian" restaurant I ordered from yesterday served it with peas.
Fucking peas. I haven't been as flabbergasted since I tried lasagna with peas in it. Why not just piss in my mouth instead? I'd probably enjoy that more, in all honesty.
Of course, there's regional variation. Pakistani biryani is different, so is the Afghan kind. There's like half a dozen other variants from India. The one I'm most fond of can't be found anywhere nearby, for love or money.
I believe @DirtyWaterHotDog mentioned finding actually appetizing biryani in the States, he might be able to guide you better.
.... I think I'm just a heathen, I've been to the few places in the US with legit stuff and still meh
For the sake of my mental health, I'll assume that you've just had really bad luck. If I moved to the States and never managed to find decent biryani? I'd self-deport.
I think I'm just expecting it to taste like fried rice and it doesn't. Might be an expectation thing.
Yeah, it really shouldn't taste like fried rice, in the same sense that fried rice shouldn't taste like risotto.
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Man... who the fuck serves biryani with peas? I'm not even Indian and I know that's a food crime. It reminds me of the SNL black jeopardy skit where they talk about a white woman making potato salad, and say "she probably put something unnecessary in, like raisins". You have my sympathies.
You sir, are a gentleman, a scholar, and possibly a gourmet too.
Yeah. British mushy peas can stay in the dishes where they belong.
At any rate, I love biryani lol. Without peas. We used to have a great biryani place here in town - if you went for lunch you could get biryani, the curry of the day, some boneless chicken appetizer, naan, and gulab jamun, all for only $12 or so. Truly the restaurant of the gods. Unfortunately they went out of business, and I've yet to find anything on their level since. Probably good for my body, but less good for my soul.
I'm not a restaurateur, but I think I can draw the line between these two statements.
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Oh well, I can only imagine the masterful quality of your biryani, while settling for bastardized versions to be found in Anglo lands.
Here is an alt link - https://ibb.co/bjKccZFW
It looks absolutely delicious, but I must complain about portion sizes. That's the quantity I'd feed a teenage girl, a real man needs twice as much, especially after all that work haha.
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It would be monumentally difficult for anyone to not act particularly Indian in this particular way.
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