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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 20, 2026

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Because the public does not have access to their source code, their communications, their frontend or backend., which is how we found out about the other companies manipulating their results.

So in other words, there is no evidence.

It's very easy to conceive of any smoking gun evidence as something mundane, but when someone explicitly says they don't use a particular measures for ranking, and their leaked documentation says they do, a rational actor usually assumes bad faith on the part of the party making the declaration.

So in other words, it's an assumption and not actually proven.

Khelif is highl debated in the same sense vaccines are highly debated, your attempt to dismiss a chromosome test with

"Khelif has XY chromosomes" != "Imane Khelif is a man.", and it's not just hardcore lefties who believe that but also again Algeria a Muslim conservative nation that had Khelif participate in women's sports.

vague assumptions about the culture of a country

You know you can just literally Google how the Algerian government treats and views LGBT people right? Again, they're bound to make most of the people here look like they're woke.

You're the one that brought the "this is what conspiracists say in these other cases, therefore you're wrong argument". If it works one way, it works the other way as well (or, you know, it was dishonest to make it from the start).

Well yes, conspiracists are typically stupid.

Remember, this entire conversation is about a 2019 change to push poll casual viewers being alleged as an intentional manipulation to cover for The Odyssey failing. Five years before it was even in production! There is no other way to put it, this is one of the most retarded arguments ever made, and you are left defending it because people would rather look like a massive fucking retard who apparently think RT can see the future (the only explanation for how the 2019 change could have been knowingly done for a movie in production in 2024) than concede whatever culture war nonsense they've gotten into, because showing "loyalty" to the in-group is worth sacrificing every braincell both current and future.

"Sometimes us conspiracists are right" would be far better suited in a conversation where the argument is not so bad that even the dumbest kid in the special ed classroom wouldn't attempt it. It is simply not reasonable that Rotten Tomatoes switched to push polling casual viewers for the purpose of manipulating The Odyssey review scores.

So in other words, there is no evidence.

Which is much less own then you think it is, given that there is zero public access to anything that could be evidence, and no reason to assume the site is acting in good faith.

"Khelif has XY chromosomes" != "Imane Khelif is a man."

Yes, it does.

and it's not just hardcore lefties who believe that but also again Algeria a Muslim conservative nation that had Khelif participate in women's sports.

You are again trying to use your vague impressions of a country you know nothing about to wave away the results of a chromosome test. This means nothing you say about evidence existing or not existing can be taken seriously.

You know you can just literally Google how the Algerian government treats and views LGBT people right?

Who said anything about Khelif being LGBT?

Well yes, conspiracists are typically stupid.

Remember, this entire conversation is about a 2019 change to push poll casual viewers being alleged as an intentional manipulation to cover for The Odyssey failing. Five years before it was even in production!

Oh dear. If you're going to call people stupid, you probably should make sure you're not going to misrepresent their argument to such a drastic extent. Studios have an incentive to manipulate the coverage of shitty movies in general. The Odyssey might happen to be an escalation point in the measures they take, but otherwise it's just a specific instance of what they do in general.

Which is much less own then you think it is, given that there is zero public access to anything that could be evidence, and no reason to assume the site is acting in good faith.

Then that can be said instead of making unproven allegations. They can say "I assume X".

You are again trying to use your vague impressions of a country you know nothing about to wave away the results of a chromosome test. This means nothing you say about evidence existing or not existing can be taken seriously.

We know the Algerian government viewed her as a woman, because despite being intersex they had her competing in women's sports.

Oh dear. If you're going to call people stupid, you probably should make sure you're not going to misrepresent their argument to such a drastic extent. Studios have an incentive to manipulate the coverage of shitty movies in general. The Odyssey might happen to be an escalation point in the measures they take, but otherwise it's just a specific instance of what they do in general.

Shifting from bailey to motte here. The allegation isn't "they could have incentive to manipulate the coverage" but specifically that the 2019 change by Rotten Tomatoes is active manipulation to hide how unpopular The Oddysey "truly" is.

The issue is that this actual allegation is objectively stupid, and that's why you have to retreat back. It's a motivated claim looking for evidence and couldn't find any, so it was decided that an old change to poll casual viewers (and fix feedback selection bias) would be retrofitted as proof.

Then that can be said instead of making unproven allegations.

I think it's fine to make allegations, as long as it's clear that they are allegations, and you're not misleading people by implying you have hard evidence.

We know the Algerian government viewed her as a woman, because despite being intersex they had her competing in women's sports.

Which says precisely nothing about whether or not Khelif is, in fact, a man or a woman, particularly in the presence of a Y chromosome and testicles.

Shifting from bailey to motte here. The allegation isn't "they could have incentive to manipulate the coverage" but specifically that the 2019 change by Rotten Tomatoes is active manipulation to hide how unpopular The Oddysey "truly" is.

The issue is that this actual allegation is objectively stupid,

No, you're just misrepresenting the original argument. Unless I got lost in the conversation, I didn't see anyone say this was made for the Odyssey specifically. The claim is it was made for shitty movies in general, and The Odyssey is a specific instance to which the claim applies.