site banner
PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   22313 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 4, 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.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

A separate facility for trans-women was an offer of a compromise

That sounds like a massive expense for a rather small percentage of the population. Prisons generally try to operate on economies of scale, it's a lot cheaper to manage prisoners if you can cram as many as possible into the smallest area you can (without getting complaints from the human rights crowd). It's akin to making a separate third restroom for trannies when you could just have them use the one that matches their sex (bathrooms are, after all, sex separated, and I've been repeatedly told that conflating sex and gender is transphobic).

But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din

List the ominous stern whisper, from the Delphic cave within

They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin.

"It's not a compromise with sin; we're just reducing expenses at the cost of throwing a rather small percentage of the population under the bus."

"Exactly what do you think a compromise with sin is?"

  • -10

Pleading to the Gods of the Copybook Headings in support of housing transgender offenders in women's prisons is a ludicrous move. What do you think sin is?

I favour Granny Weatherwax's definition.

I am curious how you arrived at the conclusion that sex-segregation is the best way to protect female inmates from harm amounts to "treating people as things". I legitimately do not see how the one follows from the other.

Your tic of defending your worldview in an indirect way by linking to other authors (and not even including the relevant passage in the body of your comment), many of whom were writing fiction and not discussing the object-level topic under discussion, is very telling. It makes me think you lack confidence in your own arguments to persuade people, and that your goal is not to persuade but to distract and frustrate.

I am curious how you arrived at the conclusion that sex-segregation is the best way to protect female inmates from harm amounts to "treating people as things".

It's more the conclusion that protecting the identity!female natal-gonads!male inmates is too expensive to bother with.

Then why, when directly asked to define "sin", did you cite a work in which sin is explicitly defined as "treating people as things"? You could have just as easily said "sin is when we don't do what we ought to because it's inconvenient or too expensive".

sin is when we don't do what we ought to because it's inconvenient or too expensive

...and we regard the people thus harmed not as human beings but as numbers on a balance sheet.

You mean, exactly the same way you regard women who've been sexually assaulted in prisons and hospitals as a direct consequence of the policies you endorse?

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