site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   8372 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 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.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

On the other hand, the boosters have also been continually proven wrong in terms of the effects in the world.

There are effects. Every white collar person I know is working order of magnitude less.

This is why it is so hard to measure. AI is absolutely revolutionary but in some amusing twist the majority of the value it generates is non monetarily

I really think this depends on what you are doing. For instance work that primarily involves relationships and interaction in meatspace? Unchanged. Physicians? Unchanged.

Ambient scribes are now common but they are of very poor quality, and in some specialities only replace low paid labor (ex: ED) instead of reducing work load. Poor choice for progress notes and admission notes, unnecessary for procedure notes, really the only thing AI helps with is hospital courses even then the edit process is going to be key because the reliability isn't there.

I should really do an effort post on this, but medicine is noticing and attempting to address never-skilling, mis-skilling and deskilling, which will absolutely be a problem in professional domains in the future (and is already a problem in education).

I agree with OP - yes we've seen some amazing feats but translators and cars still exist, both of which were promised to be replaced years and years ago.

Real medicine is not white collar work. I can assure you that your administrators and HR are slacking like never before.

I disagree but only on the grounds that they were never doing anything before.

Are they actually working less (starting work at 11 instead of 9, leaving at 2 instead of 5 or 6) or are they just doing (or ‘generating’) more to fill in the space? The thing about a lot of white collar work is that in substantial part it was already pretty fake (a consultant’s 10 page deck from 1985 became a 600 page deck in 2023 because research/word processing/powerpoint got easier, but they’re still about equally useful), so AI just changes the provenance of the bullshit.

I am not sure they are working less, but they are definitely slacking more and having more unproductive time working 9 to 5.

I’m with the lefties that working hours should decrease to start matching increased productivity, with less demand for more luxuries vs more free time, especially with robotics improving and promising to further improve productivity in blue-collar jobs.

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