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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023

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If you've browsed alternative politics communities for any period of time, you've noticed that people on supposedly opposite sides tend to use each other's language and terminology "ironically". (IE, "Moid"/"Foid", "Incel", "Chud", "Libtard", "Dudes rock") Likewise, people tend to enjoy the same entertainment media: Strategy games, dialogue heavy RPGs, The Cyberpunk genre and it's associated political themes. Why do supposedly "leftist" subreddits (stupidpol, Redscarepod) get flooded with rightoids when there's a banwave?

I have a theory that many people are actually sort of a meta-fan of the politics fandom. When you're into weird, obscure political philosophers like Julius Evola or Ted Kaczynski or Max Stirner or whoever, you're not actually "more right" or "more left", you're into alternative politics itself.

If you believe that the US government is controlled by a select group of international enthonationalists, it's not that hard to generalize that belief to a class-struggle framework. Likewise, if you believe in class-struggle, it's not crazy to notice that certain upper classes, particularly in Washington DC, have over-representation from certain groups and strong in-group political loyalty to those groups.

Anyone else notice a similar effect? I'm still trying to develop my thesis.

Why do supposedly "leftist" subreddits (stupidpol, Redscarepod) get flooded with rightoids when there's a banwave?

Because they allow serious critique of left-wing idpol they dislike while also being left enough that they're less likely to get banned by admins.

I have a theory that many people are actually sort of a meta-fan of the politics fandom.

Or they're just overly online and so absorb the language of the overly online. In the past it might have been memes about can has-ing cheeseburgers or jokes about Aalewis and his euphoria or whatever. Now it's incel/FDS/Zoomer lingo, with a lot more existential politics because things have polarized even more.

What is FDS?

Female Dating Strategy.

The bitterness from this group is stunning. Its like fog in the air. Yes, there are all kinds of gripe forums and people nursing their various grievances out there, but they don't even have a coherent ideology. Its just pain and lashing out.

I'm curious, what gripe forums are you comparing it too?

In my mind the most whiny forums are /r/asianmasculinity and its ilk. Though that may just be a personal bias.

Personally I kinda like FDS. If women want something, they should try to get it. Rather than sit and mope.

In many ways, FDS is but the quiet parts of mainstream Western lipstick feminism said out loud.

Thus, I rather enjoy FDS. At least FDSists acknowledge that men and women are different, with different and often conflicting interests in courtship, relationships, and sexuality. Unlike sexual/gender egalitarians who insist men and women are the same aside from superficial characteristics and possibly the socialization effects from The Patriarchy.

That's incels you're describing pretty much. What happens is people take their grievances and naturally start weaving them together into ideology in an organic process just by talking to each other.

There is an ideology. They aren’t explicitly saying so but it exists. What they’re saying is “make sure you get the man you actually want.” Which is sort of the same idea as redpill, just for women.