site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35021 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 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.

12
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

As a thought experiment, name a couple Chinese-American actors, or any other immigrant-descendants who use their influence to subvert European-American values.

One of the only apparently decent people in Hollywood is Keanu Reeves, Americans love his gun movies.

On the other hand, we have a Sarah Silverman who makes Santa Inc.

Statistically speaking there's a jew in new york whose grandpa moved to brooklyn and learned english, and his dad moved to italy and learned italian, and his dad moved to austria and learned austraian, and his dad had to learn greek, and each of them invested in a local business along the way.

Normal people don't do that. Why do you act as if that's evidence of integrating successfully?

Speaking the same language as somebody =/= integrating.

This is an example of integration

A normal person you talk shit to they talk shit back, they don't seize your bank accounts.

Only the high priests of the Holocaust religion make people bow and apologize with real tears.

a couple Chinese-American actors

I can't, but that could be because they've not been so successful at integrating into American society thus far? Give them time.

Celebrities are a terrible example because they are not normal people in any sense of the word, the only shared trait they have is that they're well known. This seems to me like a motte and bailey.

Normal jews absolutely are as I described, in fact they're so good at assimilating that society at large can't even decide if they are white or not!

I mostly base my opinions from what Jews publish.

It's not all of them, it's the ones that reach certain spheres where they get to publish their opinions to my eyeballs.

For every Stephen Miller or even Glenn Greenwald, there seems to be 10 Ben Shapiro "I don't give a good damn about the so-called "browning of America."

I'm not dedicated enough to quantify that, or even be able to quote people that obsessively do it, but I can't ever recall a 'normal Jew' saying 'you know what, what they did to Kanye / Andrew Anglin / Nick Fuentes, that's disgusting, they should have a right to criticize powerful people!'.

It seems to me that the ratio of visible Jews that oppose vs support tolerate any kind of traditional, right-wing, European-centered culture/politics is large.

Even on here, a website with hundreds if thousands of users, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of Jews (perhaps 10% or more), and I've already been attacked several times by them.

Not once have I seen on themotte.org a self-identified Jew say 'you know what this guy is right, maybe powerful Jews are behaving like bullies somewhat'. I have seen one somewhat admit to similar ideas but ended up reverting to some kind of 'not all Jews' defense.

Maybe I don't see or understand the more nuanced positions by Jews here, and it's something else that makes them disagree.

'it's not enough to be not racist, we have to be anti-racist'

When you see an individual Jew attack white people, white institutions, white culture, Christianity, don't let them run their mouth unopposed.

Be the 'good' Jew that undoes jewish supremacy (the only accepted form of white racism).

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