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 -
First time? Pretty much every moderately successful influencer is posting 80% engagement bait in some form. Youtube, Tiktok, Reels, Substack, whatever. Engagement is an influencer's bread and butter and they give zero shits for how much they torch the commons as long as they get theirs.
For Hannania he first gained influence without the engagement baiting and just wrote interesting things. For me it’s seeing the transition from intellectually interesting to influencer sell-out over time that makes him different. Most of us probably knew his writings before he got a little famous.
I can’t fault someone for trying to make a buck, but he’s not the same Hannania from like 2018 or whenever he began to gain influence. I’ve come close to just blocking his comment on social media because it’s 90% hackery now.
Idk who stated the obvious but someone once said that something like: "if you are good at something, and do it for fun, making it a business sucks all the fun out of it, and eventually you do it for the money" (I suck at words) Sounds like the most common pipeline. People write interesting things, collect a following, then start doing it for a buck, and since it's now about audience metrics and engagement, it forces them to sell-out.
It's sad but common enough that I guess I just cynically assume most folks with online followings are somewhere in that pipeline and it's just about where.
I believe it was a very wise man:
While the context (from Matthew 6:24) has God and money as the two masters, it applies just as well to any two non-identical selections: they will somewhere and somehow conflict and a choice must be made.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link