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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 30, 2023

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Who would willingly confess to moral incompetence on all the big questions?

Someone honest about limits of their knowledge.

You guys are not behaving as if you just want people to be nice, and refuse to judge/abstain from voting on the big questions.

At this point I think you're deliberately misrepresenting what I said. Here, again:

I believe the conduct of our medical establishment regarding the transgender issue is the biggest medical scandals since lobotomies. But it is not the fact that they're on the other side of this giant controversy that bothers me about them, it is precisely the little things: the refusal to engage with opposing views, the censorship, the getting people fired from their jobs. I don't think I'm wrong on the issue, but it's not impossible, but if I conduct myself with some semblance of decency I can sleep easy knowing I did what I did with good intentions. This would ring rather hollow if I lowered myself to their level.

This does not boil down to "I just want people to be nice". Can you at least consciously try to paraphrase the above in your words, in a way that you think I'll recognize as my own views?

No, you act like your side is entirely morally correct, and part of that case is that your opponents aren’t nice

That's pretty reductive, but baby steps I suppose. Yes, I did say getting the small things right is more important that answering the grand moral questions, no?

(well, sometimes you argue you shouldn’t be nice either because they started it, but whatever).

Can you give an example?

Can you give an example?

Generally, the sub (and FC) is more partisan right-wing than I am on the topics you highlighted, free speech, not firing people, tolerance for differing opinions among friends.

How is that being not nice because they started it?

A common sentiment in the sub is “When we had power, we gave them free speech. Now that they have power, they deny it to us. We won’t make that mistake again.“

I feel like my worldview is close enough to FC's that I can answer for what he said (excluding the time period where he self-admittedly was in a dark place), but I'm not going to answer for "the sub".

Other than that I'm going to need something more specific. I think I had a conversation semi-recently where I defended conservative parents banning progressive books in schools, so depending on how you meant it you could fit that into "not making that mistake again", but in the same conversation I defended the right for progressives to do the same in their communities with conservative books, so I would disagree this is "not being nice because they started it".

Are you denying this is an official @FCfromSSC positionTM ? If anything, he's even more against free speech, ie, 'it was always a sham and could never have worked no matter the opponent'. Now in practice I believe he is less anti-free speech than the woke.

Nevertheless, this is a major problem for your argument. Because firstly people disagree on what the seemingly universal norm of ‘common sense decency’(small-h honor of lee and rommel) even is, and secondly, free speech to me is actually a ‘big question’, so the distinction you’re trying to make, and the world where we all just stick to your small standards, can’t exist.

Are you denying this is an official @FCfromSSC positionTM ? If anything, he's even more against free speech, ie, 'it was always a sham and could never have worked no matter the opponent'. Now in practice I believe he is less anti-free speech than the woke.

Depending on what you mean by it, I am against free speech, and believe it was always a sham, which is why I said I am going to need specifics. What I'm denying is that this constitutes "not being nice to them" because I don't think either of us is asking for anything we'd deny to the progressives.

Because firstly people disagree on what the seemingly universal norm of ‘common sense decency’(small-h honor of lee and rommel) even is,

But somehow, in this entire thread, no one attacked Lee or Rommel on their personal conduct.

and secondly, free speech to me is actually a ‘big question’, so the distinction you’re trying to make, and the world where we all just stick to your small standards, can’t exist.

Nah. This is the deconstructivist "X is a social construct / has fuzzy boundaries therefore X does not exist" argument, and it's pretty clearly false. Few things in the physical world, let alone human interactions, are clearly delineated, but that does not make them non-existent or meaningless.

Depending on what you mean by it, I am against free speech, and believe it was always a sham, which is why I said I am going to need specifics.

Why then did you cite ‘the censorship’ as one of the ‘little things’ that justify your moral superiority to the woke?

But somehow, in this entire thread, no one attacked Lee or Rommel on their personal conduct.

I think I did. Obeying your superiors, fighting for your home country are some of the 'little things' I object to.

Why then did you cite ‘the censorship’ as one of the ‘little things’ that justify your moral superiority to the woke?

  • Because I don't think the same rules apply to adults engaging in politics and to the mandatory education system that children go through

  • Because they cite science as the source of their legitimacy, and you can't do science while cutting off avenues of research

  • Because they refuse to codify it, and rely on underhanded tactics like whisper networks and blackballing

I think I did. Obeying your superiors, fighting for your home country are some of the 'little things' I object to.

Nowhere in the conversation have you mentioned that you're using a similar framework to mine, and in fact you were attacking the very idea of it. So I'm sure you'll understand why I have trouble believing you actually believe the above.