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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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foid

I might be out of the loop there, but does this term actually have a more specific meaning or is it just "woman" with a layer of incel sneering ("woman (gross and stupid in the way women are)")?

For her, all of it - literally all of her waking time - is emotional pattern matching. "Does this thing go in the "make me feel good" bucket or the "make me feel bad" bucket?. That's it. That's the rubric. There isn't even the introspection done to determine how and why she has developed various emotional attachments. Not to "Freud a Foid" too hard, but does Elon remind her of the kind austic guy she dated in college who was bad at sex yet still ended up awkwardly dumping her? Is Trump "an asshole" because he is literally the same age as her estranged father?

Paragraphs like this make me think that if you want to really understand your outgroup, talking to someone like a divorced elder millennial woman is a fundamentally misguided approach, for you in particular. Your story could be more or less glossed as "this person believes things that are diagonally opposed to what I believe. I don't see a coherent way that anyone could arrive at this, but well, she is a primitive, pathetic creature that is not at all like me. I figure she believes those things for some primitive creature reasons". You are making it entirely too easy for yourself, and wind up with a conclusion that is largely useless. What you should instead be doing is seeking out people that are the most like you, who you will not be tempted to explain away as motivated by feelings or daddy issues, and still come to the same conclusions. There is no shortage of male contrarians out there who also sympathise with the DSA, find Elon disgusting and think Trump is an asshole. Try to talk to them, and understand why they believe those things.

"this person believes things that are diagonally opposed to what I believe. I don't see a coherent way that anyone could arrive at this, but well, she is a primitive, pathetic creature that is not at all like me. I figure she believes those things for some primitive creature reasons".

But, like, dude, I also wrote this in the original post:

It would be reductive to call Lauren and NPC and then dismiss her. This is a real person with a legitimate claim to human dignity and an actually strong social track record.

So, I'm a little ticked that your less-than-charitable characterization of what I wrote also discards a direct statement to the contrary.

More importantly, you're missing the larger point. I'm not here to sneer about the Lauren archetype. I'm here to try to impart what I'm seeing on the ground as a means of figuring out better ways to engage with it.

What you should instead be doing

Ehhh slow down there, dude.

is seeking out people that are the most like you

But I already understand these kind of people deeply. Definitely my conservative buds, and to a very significant extent the non-conservative dudes who are yet demographically very similar to me. There isn't a lot of mystery there. A lot of them do, indeed, have valid reasons for voting different from me. Mostly, it's a different prioritization of values.

With "Laurens" I don't think it's just another permutation of relative value of values. I think it's a different system of reasoning altogether. I don't think it's "lesser than" mine (to point back to your original baseless allegation). I think it's different.

Try to talk to them, and understand why they believe those things.

Yeah, but what about Lauren? She's important.

He or I could write the same post about DSA guys in barcade neighbourhoods of big cities (though I don't have much reason to - everyone on this site is familiar with redditors) and you'd give it the exact same response. Also, it's "diametrically", not "diagonally".

I'd be open to it meaning an Online, but Basic woman. The sort who sneers and snarls when seeing a Tesla, says things along the lines of Men Are all Such Trash, Amirite?, gets pissy about age gaps and calls the men in such Pedos, and is generally a walking collection of stereotypes.

Also, the femcels have moid, and the geometrycels have…

foid

I might be out of the loop there, but does this term actually have a more specific meaning or is it just "woman" with a layer of incel sneering ("woman (gross and stupid in the way women are)")?

My understanding is that it was originally a disparaging term for a woman in online incel culture, a contraction of femoid. But then the very online relative normies started using it as ironically faux-self-deprecating humor – the joke being on the poster for using incel slang, not on the woman under discussion. In many online spaces today it's a playful and informal term for a woman, the way I might use dudette, with no disrespect intended.

In many online spaces today it's a playful and informal term for a woman, the way I might use dudette, with no disrespect intended.

Foids and moids, we're all one or the other!

Yeah, it's basically the gender flipped version of chud. Which means it needs to be used almost 1000x more often to achieve parity.

What’s also funny is that terms like “foid” and “roastie” still make internet women and white knights seethe, and now even “female” too when used as a noun.

In contrast, “chud” has been reclaimed by wrongthinkers and the attempted revenge terms of “moid” and “scrote” never really struck a chord, as moids and scrotes were unbothered, laughed them off, or adopted them to use ironically. And, of course, males don’t get butthurt about “male” being used as a noun.

roastie

... isn't that a small potato?

“chud” has been reclaimed by wrongthinkers

Has it? Or is it just becoming universal? I still see it more from left-leaning people than right.

“chud” has been reclaimed by wrongthinkers

Has it? Or is it just becoming universal? I still see it more from left-leaning people than right.

I mean its one of the least effective internet insults to ever exist. I can't call a worse or less biting, one of the top of my head.

roastie

…isn't that a small potato?

Large labia → [roast] beef curtains → roastie (all derogatory)

I thought it was to do with spit-roasting.

I'm probably showing my years here, and maybe my autism as well, but I've never understood why that's supposed to be a bad thing!

Not that I'm saying you personally feel that way or anything, just one of those things that my brain sees and says, "why, tho?"

Most 2D pornography is drawn with small labia. It is a common sentiment that large labia are considered ugly. I think it is also a commonly-believed urban myth that promiscuity causes large labia (along with a loose vagina).

Maybe it's not a good idea to ask this but why are you claiming that it's just an urban myth?

Okay, I'll admit that I haven't previously researched this topic. A search for "labia hypertrophy site:.edu" on my phone returns (via this faculty page) this meta-analysis of labiaplasty procedures. In passing it mentions (with several citations omitted):

Labial hypertrophy is most commonly congenital in origin. However, there are a number of potential acquired causes, such as exogenous androgenic hormones in infancy, sensitivity to topical estrogen, stretching or weight attachment of the labia, dermatitis secondary to urinary incontinence, vulvar lymphedema, and myelodysplastic diseases.

(Whoops, now that I'm back on my computer I can't access the article's full text. Maybe I was getting a free preview somehow on my phone. But that was the only relevant quote in it, IIRC.)

More comments

I didn't realise we were running a DEI program to increase right-wing representation in tribal brainrot here.

If we do it too hard, the betrayal will be great when it inevitably comes out that our latest 3x AAQC awarded MGTOW knuckledragger faked his CV and is actually secretly a stay-at-home husband for a muscle mommy female CEO.

I didn't realise we were running a DEI program to increase right-wing representation in tribal brainrot here.

This is just such a reddit-y thing to say. The sarcastic, passive voice phrasing flowing into the boo outgroup "brainrot" / "muslce mommy" comment.

I'd encourage you to say what you mean. If I had to take a shot at it, I think it's something like:

"Using terms like 'foid' doesn't help with discourse because they come pre-loaded with a heavily meme'd and polemic connotation. It makes the point any author is trying to make more difficult to honestly engage with because readers who are predisposed to agree will chuckle at the terminology and let shaky analysis slide, while those predisposed to disagree will discount perhaps valid evidence too quickly."

But maybe I'm wrong here?

Your gloss is pretty good (and, unironically, I appreciate that you theory-of-minded me fairly there). In my defense, I don't think you were saying what you mean when you chose to use "foid" either; and I don't think I've been exactly hiding my long-standing frustration with how the community rewards and moderators allow free-wheeling use of slurs in service of right-wing positions (as long as they are not crossing the window frame against racism that was already in place ca. 1980). In this situation, detached sarcasm feels like the only available outlet.

Also unironically -

A big part of the "founding situation" of The Motte was over-modding / policing of even the lightest of slurs. "Foid" is exactly one of those. It's not even a slur so much as a derogatory Very Online meme / shorthand.

I can't say I remember what exactly happened (did our stewards ever outright list what the Reddit overlords demanded of them in the end?), but I was under the impression that it was about much more than that, and there were specific demands from admins to ban particular opinions (content, not tone). Moderating on tone used to be touted as a core principle of this community, and it served it rather well, if you compare the quality of top posts when it was in place vs. now. Do slurs serve any purpose other than either pissing off those they are directed against (and their allies), or inducing camaraderie among those who know them and oppose those they are directed against? I don't see how gratuitously provoking irrational anger in some subset of readers could possibly make this forum better for its stated purpose, nor how allowing some users to bond over any shared identity (other than perhaps being a high-decoupling turboautist) would.

turboautist

Please refrain from using slurs

That's not a slur any more than "nigga" is; the people who use it generally consider it to include themselves (as I did here) or use it with a tinge of admiration.

I can't say I remember what exactly happened (did our stewards ever outright list what the Reddit overlords demanded of them in the end?), but I was under the impression that it was about much more than that, and there were specific demands from admins to ban particular opinions (content, not tone).

According to others (1 2 3), the specific straw that broke the camel's back was the admins' failure to understand the use–mention distinction: somebody was banned by the admins for explaining the difference between «guillemets» and ((("echo" triple parentheses))).

MGTOW knuckledragger faked his CV and is actually secretly a stay-at-home husband for a muscle mommy female CEO.

I didn't realize there was another kind of MGTOW internet personality.