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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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Being a white identitarian is inextricably tied up with this; I believe that white people are largely doing this to ourselves, and that all we need to do is stop.

I'm bemused that you just wrote a long screed saying at greater length what I said above - which you claimed was wrong.

Let me clarify. White progressives are allowing themselves to be dominated and led off a cliff by non-white race communists. This is not at all the same as saying that white progressives are “in charge”. What I’m saying is that that people actually driving the dynamics of cancellation and of the enforcement of woke values within woke spaces are not primarily white, even if those spaces are numerically mostly white. The white individuals who are contributing actively to the weaponized parts of wokeness very often have something else wrong with them - they’re trans, or they’re extremely mentally ill (but I repeat myself), etc. Whereas the high-level non-white leftists are usually much more well-adjusted, clear-eyed, cynical operators who merely recognize the opportunity to win power for their own group at the expense of the group that had power before.

they’re trans, or they’re extremely mentally ill (but I repeat myself)

This comment was reported, and I have to agree that this sort of glibness isn't appropriate here. You are allowed to argue that trans people are mentally ill, but it has to actually be some kind of an argument, don't just throw low effort boos like that.

(I was reluctant to mod this one because you are responding to me, but this comment isn't actually a response to anything I said, which makes it even more of a gratuitous dunk on your outgroup.)

Lol, reluctant. As if it isn't plainly obvious what your goal is here - a grand display of your power. "Ha ha ha" you say, "every single comment in this chain by both of us was reported multiple times, but I will enforce this one on you because I can, because this exchange didn't end with you slinking away defeated and I will not accept that result."

PS my mental model of you is flawless.

I'm going to indulge you for a moment because why not.

Lol, reluctant.

Yes. For exactly the reasons I stated, and I also because I do not disagree with the object-level claim, yet the rules here clearly require you to actually support negative generalizations about a group, not just flippantly toss them into a one-line boo light. And also because the person who reported Hoff was being petty (many, many reports are basically a handful of people vindictively reporting either people or arguments they don't like), but in this case, they did have a point.

As if it isn't plainly obvious what your goal is here - a grand display of your power.

Dude, if I wanted to grandly display my power, I would be using it a lot more than I do. For example, when you jump on me in a discussion you weren't involved in with a load of personal attacks just because you've got beef, you are pretty clearly testing me to see if I will wield my "power." You would probably love it if I modhatted you (as I almost certainly would if you were crawling up someone else's ass like this). You'd make for a very dramatic victim of the system, I'm sure. Yet I enforce the rules as impartially as I can, even when confronted by belligerent pests trying to get a rise out of me, as seems to have become your idle hobby.

"Ha ha ha" you say, "every single comment in this chain by both of us was reported multiple times, but I will enforce this one on you because I can, because this exchange didn't end with you slinking away defeated and I will not accept that result."

This is absolute nonsense. Even @Hoffmeister25 agreed his comment was bad.

"Every comment in this chain" was not reported. A few were (I don't think any of them received multiple reports), and most of the reports were spurious. (The vast majority of the reports we get are dismissed without action.) In many previous exchanges with Hoff, I've let the matter drop after we've both had our say - often with him having the last word - so your claims are flatly and objectively untrue.

PS my mental model of you is flawless.

I'm sure you think so. Yet the objective and observable evidence says otherwise. Carry on, my dude.

I did to you what you did to hoffmeister. I used your words to develop an uncharitable model of you based on incomplete information (how would I know which posts were reported or how many times?), deployed it and then insisted on its accuracy despite obvious flaws. I think that's a bad way to behave on the motte, and I think you should stop it.

I understand it falls afoul of the speak plainly rule, however past conversations have taught me that no matter how I phrase it, if I simply tell you you have made a mistake you will dismiss me automatically. And reporting you is pointless as I have explained before. So this time I made the same argument you did, so you could discover the problems with it for yourself.

I did to you what you did to hoffmeister.

Yes, I know that's what you thought you were doing. I saw the words, I knew you undoubtedly fancied yourself to be making quite a clever point.

I understand it falls afoul of the speak plainly rule, however past conversations have taught me that no matter how I phrase it, if I simply tell you you have made a mistake you will dismiss me automatically.

Yes, I know you believe that. You keep saying that because you keep making demands, accusations, and statements which I consider and then tell you whether or not I think they are valid (usually not) and since I do not agree with your assessments, you make snide comments about how I am "automatically dismissing you because it's you," even though until you started making a hobby of this, you were barely on my radar.

Reporting me isn't pointless per se; generally when someone reports me (which happens a lot), I do not dismiss the report myself, I let another mod do so. On rare occasions this does result in one of us speaking to the other. 99% of the time, reports on mods are spurious complaints because someone doesn't like the mod or doesn't like that the comment in question was modded. But sure, report me if you want the other mods to look at my comment and decide if it was bad. If you think the mods just automatically dismiss any report on another mod, that is not true, but it certainly true that our priors at this point are heavily weighted.

You do you. But for future reference, this sort of thing, randomly jumping on someone in a subthread because you have a grudge against them, is not acceptable either, and would have gotten you modded except you are still benefiting from the extra latitude we usually give people who want to vent at mods.

Yes, I know that's what you thought you were doing. I saw the words, I knew you undoubtedly fancied yourself to be making quite a clever point.

Actually what I thought was "For fucks sake, how can someone who has told me off for mind reading say the words" I don't think I do have a poor mental model of you." with a straight face? How can he not see why it would be a bad idea for a mod to set a precedent of ignoring when someone tells you you are modelling their mind incorrectly? And how am I even supposed to bring this up with a guy who would set himself on fire if I said burns hurt?" I didn't feel clever, I didn't feel smart, I didn't feel victimised or belligerent, I felt exasperated.

I keep saying it because every single piece of evidence I have points that way. Even after I expressed my deduction, every single interaction I have with you goes the same way. It seems pretty indisputable at this stage. But you reckon you usually disagree with my assessment, which means there are times you've agreed. Link one. If you can't do that, at least tell me how the motte benefits from allowing people to insist upon their mental models of other motters when they are told they are wrong?

Also if you knew what I was doing, why did you reply the way you did? Why didn't you just address the point you knew I was making, instead of point by point refuting every line of the post? Or as well as? Why did you fill the post with bait, claiming I would love to be modded, was playing the victim, am a belligerent pest whose hobby is to get a rise out of you, and likening me to a comedic caricature?

What advantage did you gain by playing along with my ruse in exactly the way I would expect you to respond if you hadn't seen through it?

What advantage did you gain by playing along with my ruse in exactly the way I would expect you to respond if you hadn't seen through it?

I am not "playing for advantage," I'm answering questions straightforwardly. Thank you for reminding me once again why I should simply say "Good day sir" more often.

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Fair enough, it wasn’t a good or high-quality statement, and I agree that it deserves a mod warning.

I'd be curious to hear what makes you see this kind of mental health divide because I don't think it's so clear.

For example while Jussie Smollet was an opportunist, he did not seem clear eyed to me, like something was really wrong with him to try that. And I feel like that example can be applied pretty broadly to people who do and do not benefit from wokeness. People with personality disorders will manipulate those around them for status and gain, while being completely not "clear-eyed". Isn't that kind of model more plausible, where everyone is crazy? In that sense it's kind of a codependency across victimization lines.