Scott often made the refrain that the Culture War Thread of /r/slatestarcodex wasn’t especially right-wing, so much as the typical discourse people in his bubble are used to is so left-wing that anything closer to the center appears very right-wing to sheltered people.
Apparently the surprise of seeing actual right-wing talking points even applies to the moderators of /r/themotte; as can be seen in the ban list. HylnkaCG is apparently such a sheltered liberal that they couldn’t even imagine, let alone check, that Nazis were so cartoonishly evil as to believe that there was a Jewish conspiracy to destroy their way of life. As such, in the name of charity, they saw fit to ban a user for two weeks for stating plainly the origin of the term “cultural Marxism.” This is simply a fact that anyone may go and check but I guess the people at /r/themotte understand that sometimes statements of facts are made to advance certain narratives which may promote goals they find onerous, and as such statements of fact may be subject to criticism on a basis of more than their validity per se.
Since the fact that the term “cultural Marxism” originates in anti-semitic conspiracy theories is too uncharitable and constitutes a “charicature of a charicature” of one’s ideological opponents according to HylnkaCG, we are left with some unresolved tension upon realizing that white supremacists actually exist and advance their narratives at themotte. But since themotte has a responsibility to extend an olive branch to right-wing extremists who literally advance the same conspiracy theories that other users point out are the foundation of their ideology, they of course only get banned for half the time. The presumed instruction is to conceal one’s powerlevel to lend more credibility to one’s racist alarmism.
lol.
Also #freemarxbro.
I mean, it’s basically the same old “racism is such a serious accusation! therefore we have to let a lot of racism go unchecked because otherwise we’re insulting people and impugning their motives and being uncivil!”
But upgraded to “I find real life racism so cartoonishly evil that I don’t believe it happened and therefore ban anyone who speaks accurately of it because clearly they’re just being mean.”
argghh this is literally what Peterson is going on and on about with his postmodern cultural marxism.
And there also is a white nationalist party in the Netherlands (who at the recent election got the most votes (in a multi party system but still)) who created a ‘snitch on your leftwing professors’ website. (A common alt right tactic). And before this other groups like Génération Identitaire were also shouting about this. How sheltered are these people?
The fools believe the culture war stops in their threads because they say it does. They might as well proclaim themselves free of ideology while they are at it.
Thank you for advocating to #freemarxbro but I do not consider myself free until the global proletariat has been freed from the chains of capitalism.
For one of the banned they have 5 more comments besides the one linked at https://np.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/b56kwa/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_march_25_2019/ejg6o1k/
The moderator should have made a better argument. An example argument for a two-week ban: the commenter repeatedly made the same point across 6 separate comments (and maybe the commenter has a history of low-effort posts). Maybe you only get one comment per argumentative point unless you provide evidence (like a link) (Namrok’s comment doesn’t have evidence either but it’s only 1 comment).
On the topic of ‘cultural marxism’: whether or not it exists is a separate question from whether the theory is wrong. Too many right-wingers rely on the name recognition of ‘marxism’ rather than actually addressing the real argument.
Post-script: Maybe the phrase ‘cultural marxism’ originated in 1973 with Trent Schroyer’s book ‘The Critique of Domination’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Schroyer
I agree that they are essentially whitewashing some rather disturbing talking points, and obfuscating the origins and logical implications of the concepts promoted. And their stance on marx is blatantly hypocritical given how permissive they are on other topics.
However, and I cannot emphasise this enough, there is a logic to how they moderate. From what I’ve observed, the moderators like in-depth posts that spell out assumptions, get stuck into the details and refer to sources/evidence (regardless of dubiousness). They strongly dislike posts that claim to know what the opponents think better than the opponents do, make accusations or otherwise speak for other people (regardless of accuracy).
Does this permit people to argue disingenuously to create the illusion of reason and out-crazy their opponents by exploiting the pretence of charity? Most definitely, and judging by the actions of the seasoned posters, they’re well aware of this and they exploit it constantly. But if you think there is merit in posting on the motte, then it’s worth taking what the moderators consider to be proper discourse into account. Because the closer you adhere to these when posting, the harder it will be for moderators to silence you, and when they do the easier it will be to highlight the hypocrisy.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying watching them being triggered by references to marx, but it’s even more entertaining when it mimics their own style so well that they’re hamstrung by the limitations of their own logic and have to experience even more of those pesky emotions.