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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   18613 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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Lauren pays her taxes, stays employed, doesn't break the law more than a speeding ticket here and there, and some technically still illegal marijuana at her apartment. This is exactly the kind of person who I want to have feel like they are engaged with society so that they are thinking about society. But that's not happening. What made Lauren feel bad today? What made her feel good?

I was talking about roughly this with some friends recently, and it came up that in some ways post-industrial humans seem to be suffering the same sorts of malaise that zoo animals do. Sure, we have plenty of food and are kept safe, but we've socially isolated ourselves, and many of us are, at a fundamental level, mentally and physically unhealthy. We engage in over-grooming and self-destructive activities. Can't get pandas in captivity to maintain species-wide TFR either.

But this is entirely of our own making, and we're not truly stuck here. I wish I could say exactly which factors it is here: I really don't know. The Right would tell you we're coddled and incapable of facing the real-world situations. The Left would tell you we're just not comfortable enough. I'm not really convinced by either case there, but certain elements of both ring true. If I were a sci-fi writer, I think Do Not Create the Human Zoo would be an interesting book to write.

I was talking about roughly this with some friends recently, and it came up that in some ways post-industrial humans seem to be suffering the same sorts of malaise that zoo animals do. Sure, we have plenty of food and are kept safe, but we've socially isolated ourselves, and many of us are, at a fundamental level, mentally and physically unhealthy. We engage in over-grooming and self-destructive activities. Can't get pandas in captivity to maintain species-wide TFR either.

Related idea: "Humans won't breed in captivity" by Devon Eriksen. https://x.com/Devon_Eriksen_/status/1918506702267175234

I live nested inside filter bubbles where the fertility is above replacement and they're all pretty post-industrial? This sounds like a skill issue.

Do your bubbles iterate? Speaking from experience, there are plenty of somewhat wealthy conservative neighborhoods where successful people move and have 3-5 kids. But then their kids aren't quite as successful, some marry late, some don't marry, and within a single generation fertility has fallen below replacement.

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