site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34503 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023

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.

16
Top Bottom New Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I view plans of giving humans GOD mode (but not really) via AI as fundamentally removing all sort of meaning from life.

Things are easier now than they were, yes, but we still suffer. Suffering is, in my opinion, a core pillar of what it means to be human.

Great, suffer then. That doesn't give you the right to impose suffering on others.

What about his children? Will you send men with guns to snatch them away from him to hook them into AI-fueled hypermodernity?

Good, complicated question. We are I think agreed that adults should (usually) be able to do whatever. We are probably also agreed that very young children should not have their life outcome dominated by whatever decision they hold at any given moment. I believe it is also uncontroversial that children in plainly abusive (violent/sexual) households should be removed. Between that, I think this worry is overstated - parenting is also a skill whose scarcity will be reduced by the singularity.

Maybe if his children want to leave for a month, they can; it is then his problem to avoid this. I don't know where the actual degree shakes out; I suspect the actual numbers will be relative to circumstances. Presumably an AI will be able to analyze if an intention to leave is temporary or stable; this should affect decisionmaking. (Imagine how uncontroversial trans would be if satisfaction and outcome could be perfectly forecast.) But in sum, I simply think we have a warped picture of the tradeoffs involved in liberty vs parenthood due to the fact that we live in a very broken world filled with people who are very bad at what they do.

I'd send whatever needed to be sent to hear from the children themselves, give them an informed opinion of the state of the wider world, and hand them a ticket to leave whatever Neo-Malthusian hellscape Panem wants them to dwell in.

It's completely up to them whether they want to leave, but I fully support their exit rights.

I'm sure there will be people insane enough to want to dwell in such places, and that's their prerogative, but the opinion of the father shouldn't override the desires of the son. Offer to wipe their memories of the outer world after they decline if the knowledge it's out there is so unpleasant.

What age? 2? 5? 15?

Age is unlikely to be a meaningful signifier of mental maturity at that point in the future.

If a baseline human, then I'd go with 16ish, otherwise when they can be reasonably expected to have the maturity of a baseline 16yo human.

Rumspringa rules, so 16 or 17? Seems the closet analogy for modern life : experience machine would be Amish : modern life.

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