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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 2023

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Just some feedback as there are no replies here. There is a distinction between a wall of text and an effortpost, but it can be subtle. OP reads more like the latter, to its credit. But while I was nodding my head according to the first 5 paragraphs or so, I had an intense desire to "get to the point". While I understand the value of dripping out information and keeping the reader hooked and engaged, I found myself skipping ahead to try to find the thesis, or novel point being made.

I have a concrete suggestion: if it takes more than 5 paragraphs to "get to the point", then you're better off summarizing and defending, rather than buttressing and presenting.

To be clear, I guess I am delineating two different rhetoric styles: buttress and present, where by the time the point is presented, it's basically a foregone conclusion; and summarize and defend, whereby the point is not hidden til the last minute but is instead presented early, allowing the reader to grapple with it, and then defended later by the author.

Both styles have their places.

I think what @dmz is saying is that we could and should use algorithmic tool to filter out signal from noise in internet content. Perhaps they are trying to demonstrate the problem. This is definitely a good point. The issue I believe is how to monetize these internet elites. They are currently enjoying a public internet that is mostly subsidized by users that are not tech-literate enough to block ads, avoid subscriptions, etc.

Interestingly this is what Twitter was pre-Musk, for blue checkmarks. Journalists and other members of the LGBTQMAP+ community enjoyed the privilege to only read content produced by their tribe on the entire website. Until Musk made the checkmark something that anybody could simply rent for $8 a month, then they all got to enjoy @Poopypopo1488 thoughtful insights.

However it seems that the original nerds that founded the internet, open-source backbone, with its free-thinking, un-credentialed, irreverent soul... They've completely bowed down to the actual elites.

On one side mingling with the corporate types to provide tech solutions to more efficiently bomb humble goat-herders or spy on their nerd brethren, on the other side bowing to the academia yahoos hard at work to redefine human nature.

Once in a while one of them tries to challenge the powers-that-be, only to be reminded who the real boss is.

In a post 9/11, post-wikileak, post-covid world, do we really want a fraction of the people with a modicum of power to have a convenient way to propagate truth?

Journalists and other members of the LGBTQMAP+ community

If you want to associate your outgroup with pedos ("MAP") you need to actually be making an argument to justify it, not just dropping low-effort boo-light memes. Don't do this.