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 -
Suggestion: DEI but for people who couldn't sit still in class let alone thrive.
Problem with stacking your government full of talented Hermiones is that they don't seem to get that schooling just doesn't work for everything and everyone. Not everyone is terrified of disappointing teacher.
I've seen some people suggest that what makes a lot of Third World men abuse Western women who're seen as too loose is because of terminal pornbrain. But, honestly, I think they're just contemptuous and/or revert to habit. I don't know how you have access to the Western internet enough to watch porn but not get Western attitudes on this. Seems like quokka cope.
It reminds me a bit of a clip of this white guy talking to some African rapists (I think in South Africa) where they explain their rape techniques:
https://x.com/sarahsansoni/status/1816144135222595677
The white guy's visibly glaring at this point, vein about to pop but he remains calm.
These people are a different model of human, there are the high performance peoples that make advanced civilizations and then there are the low-performance peoples who don't think about the consequences. They can but they don't, it doesn't come naturally to them, not really their thing. More habitual pattern-followers than abstract reasoners.
I don't believe that the neurotic Hermione type or the autistic programmer paralyzed and terrified at the thought of making a faux pas with a woman are of the same classification as these very laidback, very casual guys. Different breeds have different types and ratios.
More options
Context Copy link
...it definitely makes sense to me, for several reasons. One, the porn is a lot easier to consume than the ideological rhetoric; you don't need to speak the language or understand sophisticated concepts or anything, it's just speaking directly to the id. And second, the porn itself certainly doesn't carry the Western attitudes, it carries a sort of shadow-self of the Western attitudes, it carries all the things that the Western attitudes are repressing. You aren't going to learn that the West hates rape more than your culture by watching all of the West's bodice-ripper fantasies while jerking off.
And I certainly don't think that this is quokka cope; I was only introduced to this idea recently and it was horrifying to me for quite the opposite reason. I already had a low view of this sort of man and was deeply pessimistic about their implications for the West in terms of rape, but I'd previously kind of implicitly assumed that they didn't consume much porn, because porn is a very culturally Western thing and they're defined by alienation from that, by regressive values. But porn is the exact kind of cultural artifact that would be able to leak through to that bit of the psychic landscape, isn't it? And they wouldn't see it the way we do at all, because they don't have built-up repressed Freudian scar tissue for it to rest in.
But the bottom line is, I don't think that the problem being terminal pornbrain contradicts it being contempt or reversion to habit. I think that the porn inflames contempt in them, a contempt that they already had but somewhat less deeply, and it shapes how they revert to their habits. It's like leading a killer dog around by waving red meat.
EDIT: Put another way, if you're horrified by the implications of these "refugee" men watching, say, videos produced by middle school girls at the behest of public officials, welcoming them into the country in a chaste and innocent fashion - and I am horrified by that - how the fuck do you think they're going to view the entire internet's worth of easily-obtainable pornography? Because I imagine that'll leave a rather larger psychological imprint on them.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link