site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   15903 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 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.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

nobody gets into politics to lower consumer prices

Remember when it was trendy in Blue circles to decry Walmart for having too low prices? The high cost of low prices. There was a whole fucking cultural thing about it.

I'm not pointing fingers at the specific readers on TheMotte or anything, but after 3 decades of observing American politics, I might be forgiven for concluding that we have the historical attention span of a lemming. Every few years something hits the zeitgeist and it's as if ever happened before.

For a contemporary version, consider this Substack which excerpts the author's paywalled article in New Statesman, the main left-wing political magazine in the UK. The basic these is that the UK has been excessively focussed on low consumer prices (unspoken, except for housing) when we should have been thinking about industrial policy and resilience. But the core beef of the political movement that New Statesman readers are part of is about middle-class living standards.

Both right-populists and left-populists are telling a story where manufacturing is special such that prioritising reshoring manufacturing over middle-class living standards will nevertheless produce higher middle-class living standards.

I don’t think it’s that coherent. Certainly, much of the left populace isn’t willing to do what’s necessary for energy and environmental review in order to restore.

Look at the pretty mild permitting bill that’s presumably now DOA. The left wing is up in arms against it because in relaxing the permits for clean energy, it would also relax those for natural gas

Old wine, new bottle

You hardly have to stretch that far -- Blues have been complaining that specifically gas is too cheap for years! There's a reason California has a gas tax of $0.73 per gallon while Alaska charges $0.08.* That's not a small difference; the whole economic impact of the Iran War, which has apparently doomed the entire Republican party, is only around twice that, and only for the last 8 months while CA's gas tax is permanent and only growing. I think an honest progressive with orthodox views on climate change would, while doubtless sincere in their opposition to the Iran War, be compelled to admit if asked that it's not because of the increase in gas prices; that in fact they are an ameliorating factor, unsatisfactory only in that they're still insufficient.

Granted, democrats (which are not all progressive) haven't had the balls to actually implement such policy on the federal level... but they have in California. Why haven't voters, so very concerned with consumer prices, not rebelled there? Any Californian upset with Trump's effect on gas prices ought to be much more upset with their state government -- if they've been driving for more than three years, the latter has certainly cost them more. And this isn't some scary, complicated macroeconomic thing like inflation generally, which maybe politicians want to solve (either instrumentally or as a terminal goal) but don't know how; it's literally just a number set by statute in the state legislature.

I think the main difference is just salience. Gas prices rose a lot very abruptly, and it was impossible to avoid talking heads telling you exactly who to blame for that. Meanwhile, CA has been boiling that frog for a decade, increasing prices gradually, and the topic just isn't part of the media conversation.

* Source. There are some interesting exceptions to the general correlation, though: Hawaii is actually the second lowest at $0.18 a gallon. But that's just because the Jones Act does the work for them, I think.

Google tells me that gas and diesel for vehicles on the road is about 10% US energy expenditures by dollar.

So while I’m not in favor of a gas tax or defending California policy here, it’s not a fair comparison. You can double the cost of gas at the pump and still not be as impactful as a 33% rise in energy prices across the board

Alaska’s lower taxes dont result in lower consumer prices- this isn’t so much blue commitment to high gas prices as a genera commitment to higher taxes.

I still remember the Dark Lord Waldemart series!

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