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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 29, 2024

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Testy? Just a tired and resigned addition of another pebble to the mountain of evidence that "female" is equivalent to one of the many kinds of enemies.

"female" is equivalent to one of the many kinds of enemies.

Don't fall for the psyop, man. There's always going to be tensions between men and women, they're probably even necessary for our growth as a species, but we cannot let this turn us into enemies, or Klaus Schwab wins. Do you want Klaus Schwab to win?

Klaus Schwab

The turning of a befuddled, milquetoast neoliberal German finance professor who started a conference into the arch-villain of modernity is quite something.

We've been through this. He's not a milquetoast neoliberal, he's a radical transhumanist techno-surveillanist, with sympathies for (if not direct allegience to) Critical Theory.

The way you say it you'd think Critical Theory was an esoteric subversive cult and not a very popular and influential historical school of thought, whose notable figures rank among the most cited individuals in all of published research everywhere.

I think you're overselling the relevance of Critical Theory,it's nowhere near mainstream adoption, and half the time it's followers ale playing some weird "hide the ball" game and deny it's very exustnce.

But either way, I don't see how these two are mutually exclusive.

I'm not overselling the relevance of critical theory to the western academic tradition as a whole, the critical theorists really do have hundreds of thousands of citations, and one of them is in the top 10 of all cited academics in any field (habermas), also you'd probably include Foucault who is the #1 most cited. I'm not claiming he has a lot of mainstream cultural relevance, but given the crossover between the 'elite' and academia it is not weird for him to be interested in critical theory.

Foucault is an exemplary critical theorist with the gay pedophilia and all.

Not the kind of comment we're looking for here tbh

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I'm not overselling the relevance of critical theory to the western academic tradition as a whole, the critical theorists really do have hundreds of thousands of citations

I don't see how one follows from the other. You can, in fact, have hundreds of thousands of citations, while generating next to no awareness about your ideas in the mainstream, and being an esoteric subversive cult.

is not weird for him to be interested in critical theory.

Yeah, we're not talking about that. Most people here are interested in critical theory to some degree on another.

This is just like communists who adore their meme about how every other division between people is an invention of infinitely powerful capitalists as a distraction from the class struggle, the only one that the communists insist matters. There are countless axis among which other people are my enemies. Only one from the set of every religion plus atheism can be on top. Only one sex can subjugate the other. Linguistic prescriptivists can't live in the world where linguistic descriptivism is the dogma.

This is just like communists who adore their meme about how every other division between people is an invention of infinitely powerful capitalists as a distraction from the class struggle, the only one that the communists insist matters.

Not exactly. I think all divisions, including this one, are based on some kernel of truth, but while we can probably live with race war, class war, religious war, or anything else you come up with, we're kind of fucked if we don't resolve the sex war.

we're kind of fucked if we don't resolve the sex war.

Well, not fucked, really.

Why? I think it was Jim who suggested to block oxygen to every newborn female's brain long enough for irreparable damage to sapience but not long enough for death. "We" can continue like that indefinitely. Or if instead the other sex manages to win decisively, that's a weak proof that they also could continue in this manner by doing the same to boys.

Aside from the fact that the far likelier scenario is a stalemate resulting in extinction, as we (not)fuck ourselves to death, it's because it wouldn't go the way you think it would go. If you want to see a completely male- or female-dominated society, look at the gay/lesbian community. Even if you crack reproduction, neither of these is capable of maintaining civilization, IMO.

look at the gay/lesbian community. Even if you crack reproduction, neither of these is capable of maintaining civilization, IMO.

Without a way to reproduce they cannot evolve towards goal of maintaining civilization, maybe cracking reproduction would make them to (and possibly introduce a schism)

Modern community? Or historical? It would suck to exist in Sparta, but I've read enough of female designs for the society to know it would suck vastly more. Culling of men, castration, loss of rights, the usual.

I’m not sure I’ve read you correctly, but if you’re suggesting women want to implement those things, you need to bring receipts.

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Actual longhouse societies don’t look like that; men sit around gambling and using substances all day while everyone lives off of the women’s gardening in a mud hut.

Or historical?

I'm not qualified to debate these. There's enough fog of war about issues I've seen with my own eyes, so I'm not sure how much it helps to bring millenia-old civilizations into the conversation. Also historical vs. hypothetical example is not a fair comparison.

Godwin's Law fell into abeyance, so I feel comfortable asking: would you call the dangers of Third Reich hypothetical after the publication of Mein Kampf but before Hitler took power? When enemies say what they want to do to me, I'd rather take them at their word.

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