It wasn't always like this. There has been a steady rightwards drift these past years and now it has become much further to the right than both Scott and the majority of the blog's audience.
It was a containment thread to keep certain discussions from taking over the rest of the board. It was pinned so it would be more effective at doing that. However, it then stole most of the board's activity and/or attracted its own set of users.
I like /r/slatestarcodex, and I like the culture war thread.
But it's worth emphasizing Scott doesn't participate in that thread, and he doesn't necessarily like it either. In fact, from what I can tell he's not a huge fan of lots of the conversations that go on there, and the topics discussed.
If anyone were to judge him on comments, please only do it based on the curated comments on his website, where he deletes and bans people who are uncivil.
Ahh, ok. I recently came across his blog and the subreddit, and based on the huge activity in that thread I figured that was a prominent creation of his. Thanks for the clarification.
As I'm sure everyone has noticed, the culture war thread has essentially grown to devour all of /r/SlateStarCodex. Also, we talk about really weird stuff here. That's intended, and it's something I like about this community; however, given the weirdness, Scott Alexander no longer wants it on /r/SlateStarCodex. We're moving this thread to another subreddit, and after some internal discussion, we've realized that only a subset of our moderators want to be responsible for the new culture-war-specific subreddit.
So, basically an attempt at image clean-up. His audience created a regular discussion based on the terminology of his original content, but he's trying to become more popular to a broader audience. If people new to him were to search, he'd be able to put some distance, should this separation be effective. That's the gist of what I'm getting from reading the latest discussion.
But politics exists, much real stuff happens there, and also, it's great entertainment. It's also great training, if you don't succumb to bad thinking. It's better doing in company of people who try to be civil and use logic, even if it usually barely works.
Resolving this tension is part of Scott's writing from very early on. This is not just image clean-up, it's dealing with a difficult situation.
but he's trying to become more popular to a broader audience
Not so much that, but to avoid repercussions in his real life. There are topics being discussed that are real sacred cows, and even if his conclusions are "correct", sometimes one is considered evil just for daring to question the conventional values. (indeed, that's much of what the "culture war" thread is about)
Since his writing is just a hobby, he doesn't want fallout from that to impact his real professional career.
Yeah, understood. Personally, I commend him. I sure as hell wouldn't put my name to controversial topics (even if said discussion itself should, ideally, NOT be controversial). In today's social climate that takes some serious courage, and it's not really worth it unless you can be employed regardless of opinion. I'm guessing in his sphere that's not permitted, which is unsettling.
A more parsimonious explanation would be the comment section of any public forum on the internet quickly becomes a shit hole, and when that shit hole is in your name, but you don't participate, that's not a fun position to be in.
