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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   36334 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023

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As a practical matter, if you are going to participate in discussion in what is still essentially the free-floating descendant of the comments section of Scott Alexander's blog, it is probably worth being familiar with the classics just to be up to speed with what people are talking about. But in this particular context, (a) I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup is a fun read, and (b) it talks about exactly the sort of way in which what beer you drink can be a class or "tribe" marker.

I don't read the Christian Bible just to "get up to speed with what people are talking about". I'm not going to read the biblical writings of this place either.

I'm happy to be impractically ignorant of The Motte's jargon.

It's evident from context what people are talking about. I don't need a milquetoast unfunny blog to explain it.

Well, suit yourself, but the point that a beer absolutely can be a class marker still stands. The relevant part of the SSC post:

The people who are actually into this sort of thing sketch out a bunch of speculative tribes and subtribes, but to make it easier, let me stick with two and a half.

The Red Tribe is most classically typified by conservative political beliefs, strong evangelical religious beliefs, creationism, opposing gay marriage, owning guns, eating steak, drinking Coca-Cola, driving SUVs, watching lots of TV, enjoying American football, getting conspicuously upset about terrorists and commies, marrying early, divorcing early, shouting “USA IS NUMBER ONE!!!”, and listening to country music.

The Blue Tribe is most classically typified by liberal political beliefs, vague agnosticism, supporting gay rights, thinking guns are barbaric, eating arugula, drinking fancy bottled water, driving Priuses, reading lots of books, being highly educated, mocking American football, feeling vaguely like they should like soccer but never really being able to get into it, getting conspicuously upset about sexists and bigots, marrying later, constantly pointing out how much more civilized European countries are than America, and listening to “everything except country”.

(There is a partly-formed attempt to spin off a Grey Tribe typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, drinking Soylent, calling in rides on Uber, reading lots of blogs, calling American football “sportsball”, getting conspicuously upset about the War on Drugs and the NSA, and listening to filk – but for our current purposes this is a distraction and they can safely be considered part of the Blue Tribe most of the time)

I think these “tribes” will turn out to be even stronger categories than politics. Harvard might skew 80-20 in terms of Democrats vs. Republicans, 90-10 in terms of liberals vs. conservatives, but maybe 99-1 in terms of Blues vs. Reds.

It’s the many, many differences between these tribes that explain the strength of the filter bubble – which have I mentioned segregates people at a strength of 1/10^45? Even in something as seemingly politically uncharged as going to California Pizza Kitchen or Sushi House for dinner, I’m restricting myself to the set of people who like cute artisanal pizzas or sophsticated foreign foods, which are classically Blue Tribe characteristics.

Wow, I never could have guessed this obvious and simplistic summation of American politics from the context. Wait, no, what I mean is: this obvious and simplistic summation of American politics is incredibly evident from context and I learned nothing from this quotation.

If it's obvious and simplistic, do you concede the point about it being possible for a beer to be a class marker? Because your denial of that was upstream of this whole exchange.

I don't read the Christian Bible just to "get up to speed with what people are talking about". I'm not going to read the biblical writings of this place either.

You are of course not obligated to read anything to participate here. Overlooking the snark about "Biblical writings," though, if you started attacking Christians while having no idea of who this Jesus guy they keep mentioning is, you'd look rather ignorant and certainly not be very persuasive. Though I suppose you'd feel the same sense of smug superiority you are displaying now at being so self-evidently right that you don't even need to understand the terms people are using to look down on them.

There's other places to learn basic sociology than a blog no one's heard of.

SSC isn't a blog no one's heard of, at least here.

Nor is it regarded as a "Bible." But a lot of the jargon and in-group references (such as "Red Tribe/Blue Tribe") come from there. Again, you don't have to go read it, but if someone uses a term you don't recognize, and you misunderstand the reference, the reasonable thing to do would be to ask.

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