site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   11608 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 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
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The non-wokes are upset because they wanted EVE, and Evie's assets are comparatively tame. And at least some of them (including Asmongold) agree she looks too young as well.

As best as I can tell, there's like 2 non-wokes complaining about Evie replacing Eve because she's got a more boyish style and attempting to manufacture consensus to the effect, and everyone else is happy to have another sexy and hyper-sexualized female protagonist in a AAA video game industry that has been leaning away from that. I'm a huge fan of the first game, and the Stellar Blade subreddit which I check pretty often certainly has been close to 100% positive.

Funniest part to me, though, has been the entirely predictable reaction by the "wokes" to memory-hole their reaction to Eve (only 2 years ago!), which had itself involved an attempt to memory-hole their reaction to 2B, which had itself involved an attempt to memory-hole their predecessors' reaction to Bayonetta.

In terms of Evie's looks, many people have pointed out that young women in their 20s or late teens who look like Evie aren't all that uncommon in Korea and other East Asian countries, with women in their 30s and 40s looking like that not being unicorns either. I've seen at least a couple of cosplayers dress themselves up to look like her with convincingly similar facial features, though with filters and AI, it's hard to say how real those are.

Funniest part to me, though, has been the entirely predictable reaction by the "wokes" to memory-hole their reaction to Eve (only 2 years ago!), which had itself involved an attempt to memory-hole their reaction to 2B, which had itself involved an attempt to memory-hole their predecessors' reaction to Bayonetta.

Some of this could be because it isn't always the same people complaining each time. So instead of "memory holing", it's more like one group of people complains at time X, and another group of people who always liked the thing happening at time X complain at time Y.

I'm not saying there has never been an individual who made themselves of their close associates into hypocrites on this count, but I would imagine if you could have the god's eye view of social media, there would be a lot less hypocricy here than you'd think.

Could be, but it's not about the hypocrisy. It's the fact that the exact same arguments, principles, and underlying ideology are invoked each time. It's a reflection of the fact that the arguments are disingenuous, because they're fundamentally based on unfalsifiable faith-based claims that can be picked up when someone dislikes something and then dropped when time proves something popular and well-liked.

That east asian women switch from teen to grandma with nothing in between has been meme forever.

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