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.

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Cultural war and cultural revolution continues, as it should.
Revolution has a beginning, but it has no end.
And the newest battle is the most ancient, Homer's - and Christopher Nolan’s - Odyssey.
Many are happy, many are unhappy, and among the latter is world's richest man, as expected.
Elon was unhappy so much that he promised to rifle through his pockets for some spare change and give Mel Gibson $100 million to remake Odyssey in fully authentic and historically accurate way, with Greek actors and spoken in proper Homeric Greek.
Then, the next day, he changed his mind. Directors - and actors - are as obsolete as draft horses, Grok can do it all alone and cheaper.
If it happens, would it make a difference? Elite Mottizen human capital had been talking and daydreaming for a long time about potential of money to change the world. If only we were rich men!
The real life billionaire and centi millionaire activism is not encouraging but we can always dream how we will do it right!
edit: links
Related to this topic: Rotten Tomatoes manipulating review scores.
There's now a website account for the change the website made in around 2019, where it started weighing the scores towards ticket buyers through a phone app.
Odyssey was heavily featured as having a 97% Audience score on RT, but a 60% score when adjusted for the 2019 changes. More specific info can be found in the 'More Info' tab.
It's kind of crazy to me that this is spawned from /r/KotakuInAction . Old dogs continue to bark.
Would be a big deal if true, let's see what the alleged manipulation is.
"Before 2019, RT made you work to rate a film. You logged in, found the page, and submitted. So only motivated fans bothered.
After 2019, RT switched to a "PUSH" system. Ticket apps like Fandango ping you after the show. ONE TAP on 1–5 ⭐, and you're done"
That doesn't sound like manipulation, that actually sounds like a better system. You want to get an idea of what the general public believes, you poll the general public. Push notifications with easy reviews is how you get the casuals to tell you their opinion. Plus it being from the ticket apps means they're all inherently confirmed viewers too which helps to mitigate culture war shenanigans and review bombing.
Most movies having a negative "popcorn gap" should be expected, we know with all sorts of feedback systems that they skew away from normal users and towards complainers and the more friction there is the more the skew tends to be.
How do you explain a positive “popcorn gap?”
Rare occurances where for some reason the selection effect of "people who bother to write a review" are more positive than the casual viewer. I imagine it'll be heavily correlated with preexisting large fanbases.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link