site banner
PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   20481 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 31, 2026

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.

5
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Don't you find it at least interesting that feminists are willing to support women even when they murder their children, but not when they say the gamer word? "I support women, even when they use racial slurs when their blood is up" seems like it could be an equally effective costly signal, and yet it wasn't.

I think it's intensely interesting as a phenomena but I think you are missing some of the factors in her support. The core of her supporters are suburban white women, not feminists. specifically a kind of overly online, true crime brained suburban white women. The type of people who watched Nancy Grace back in the day. This first and foremost a white women phenomena more than it is about left right politics and indeed these type of suburban white women aren't particularly left coded, and while I'd guess a majority of her supporters are some flavor of liberal, there are plenty of apolitical and right wing supporters of her as well. And a huge portion are outside the Overton window the tiktok astrology girlies are not respectable liberals

As for why not Shiloh Hendrix because women don't care about the gamerword I'd hazard more liberal men have used it then conservative suburban moms and it's not like suburban conservative moms are ok with their sons saying slurs on Xbox live either. And it's just not a salient issue for women it's in the name gamerword. True crime on the other hand is of an issue to women and like catnip or crack to some women this case is more similar to like something like Casey Anthony then a left right political issue. I've heard this described as Qanon for white women which I think covers it and this is truly a gender war thing rather then a left right political thing. Her supporters are literally entirely white women motivated by entitlement misandry and true crime brain. I do think it shows the depths of the women are wonderful fallacy in our society and I've seen a lot of otherwise party line liberal men utterly flabbergasted by women's reaction to this case, so I'm curious if this will lead to any backlash or long lasting effects.

On a somewhat unrelated note I thought Nancy Grace generally has a bas reputation among overly online, true crime brained suburban white women.

You think astrology and mainstream feminism are different people?

That's not very convincing. For one, it completely blows up your earlier framing, it's not about "defending women even if..." , it's about supporting them only when they're in the same class, and even the class issue falls flat when you compare it to the reaction to JK Rowling. She was just as popular as true crime is now, when she made her comments on the trans issue, and legions of women built their identity around Harry Potter.

That wasn't me commenting earlier. I don't think it's women issue. You won't see any black women supporting her. As for JK I think that's an entirely different line as in that's political/culture war issue in a way that this isn't. This cuts across potical lines and

You have both left wing and right women on tiktok going nuts with conspiracies' about how she was framed by her evil husband, or about how she was failed by the evil doctors or just can't be held responsible because she's crazy. And that's the main thing no matter what Lindsay can't have been responsible. There's a resistance to responsibility and misandry that runs through it. What it's not is an actual defense of child killing. If man or fat ugly black woman did this they wouldn't care one iota. It's similar to other true crime tempests like Casey Anthony or Madeline McCann, except this one shows some really ugly beliefs that have been simmering under the surface.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats