Best of 2020 - final results and celebration thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/l6zd6n/best_of_2020_final_results_and_celebration_thread/

created by as-well on 28/01/2021 at 15:17 UTC*

162 upvotes, 6 top-level comments (showing 6)

Dear friends,

I finally got the time to properly finish the best of 2020 contest. We voted[1] and voted[2] and nominated[3] and finally, it is time to celebrate the winners, the champions, the very best, and thereby acknowledgeing the hard work so many of us put into this subreddit and the community, and the group project of being the best philosophy q&a forum around.

1: https://new.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/krq0a6/best_question_of_2020_voting_thread/

2: https://new.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/kxwdbg/best_answer_of_2020_voting_thread/

3: https://new.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/ki6idy/best_of_2020_contest_call_for_nominations/

In this thread, I am excited to announce the winners of this contest. The winners already got the **very special Owl of Minerva award**, wherever possible on the nominated content. The awards include one month free reddit premium which, I guess, gives you a month without ads and another goodie or two. Congratulations! Without further ado, I give you the winners - in the order of votes received for the first two categories, and alphabetically for the last. Full disclosure: The laudatios are mostly copy-pasted from the nominations.

*Best Question of 2020**

What is the real relationship between "me" and my "thinking"? Are my thoughts a part of me, or are they something I create, or are they something external that simply comes to me?[4]This reflective question by u/Inkshooter[5] about the relationship between you and thinking
If Edward Snowden saw his government doing things that they don't have the constitutional right to do, does he have the ethical responsibility to alert the populace even if he signed a contract to not divulge anything being done behind closed doors?[6]by u/diogenesthehopeful[7] for this nice question about obligations to whistleblow.
Is Socratic method the best way to change someone's mind?[8] by u/turquoise8
Philosophical takes on cancel culture[9] by u/princessofwherever[10] - a very timely question in a year where cancel culture seemingly was discussed everywhere
What's the current feminist take on OnlyFans?[11]u/maddog367[12] for this interesting question on feminist views on what may be the fastest growing not-so-savory internet company.
Why isn’t the field of philosophy concerned with communicating its ideas to the general public?[13] by /u/margotiii[14], the most upvoted question on our sub of all time and one that is also very interesting!
Has there been any answer to the "Cultural Marxism" conspiracy theory?[15] by u/drone4epic[16] is a quite important question about 'disproving' the cultural marxism thing.

*Best Answer of 2020**

4: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/ihagw9/i_have_ocd_and_the_primary_symptom_is_having/

5: https://www.reddit.com/u/Inkshooter

6: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/jy5uq7/if_edward_snowden_saw_his_government_doing_things/

7: https://new.reddit.com/u/diogenesthehopeful/

8: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/k5td4z/is_socratic_method_the_best_way_to_change/

9: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/hchwal/philosophical_takes_on_cancel_culture/

10: https://new.reddit.com/u/princessofwherever/

11: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/jmwm07/whats_the_current_feminist_take_on_onlyfans/

12: https://www.reddit.com/u/maddog367

13: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/i6ku8v/why_isnt_the_field_of_philosophy_concerned_with/

14: https://new.reddit.com/u/margotiii/

15: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/h0zutr/has_there_been_any_answer_to_the_cultural_marxism/

16: https://new.reddit.com/u/drone4epic/

u/drinka40tonight[17] for this awesome answer on philosophy's capacity to provide answers[18]
u/iunoionnis[19] for this concise, clear and super helpful answer around Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit[20] (among others of this kind of quality answers from them)
u/JSDrey[21] for this comprehensive answer on the different syncretic forms of Fascism, it's history, it's general definition, and the philosophers who championed it[22]
u/glencorapalliser[23] for this answer on what role historic philosophers play today[24]
u/TychoCelchuuu[25] for going in-depth why there isn't more public philosophy[26]
u/Emergent_Complexity[27] for this great answer on Pascal's Wager[28]

*Outstanding Users of 2020 (in alphabetic order)**

17: https://www.reddit.com/u/drinka40tonight

18: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/jez2i6/how_successful_is_philosophy_in_providing_answers/g9hfv4n/

19: https://www.reddit.com/u/iunoionnis

20: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/camcda/hegels_phenomenology_of_spirit_a_couple_questions/et9sw4g/?context=3

21: https://www.reddit.com/u/JSDrey

22: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/j8mw9c/are_there_any_genuinely_sound_arguments_in_favor/g8c8kan/

23: https://www.reddit.com/u/glencorapalliser

24: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/kmaezd/is_philosophy_too_focused_on_past_thinkers_and/ghdlndy/

25: https://www.reddit.com/u/TychoCelchuuu

26: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/i6ku8v/why_isnt_the_field_of_philosophy_concerned_with/g0witm2/

27: https://www.reddit.com/u/Emergent_Complexity

28: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/fofkuy/is_pascals_wager_still_valid/flf5rsh/

u/eitherorsayyes[29] for the always helpful advice on finding tech jobs as a philosopher in the inside baseball thread
u/mediaisdelicious[30] for being patient, curious, helpful, knowledgeable, and genuinely an inspiration to a kind of person that I strive to be.
u/iunoionnis[31] for their elaborated, accesible, clear and extremely helpful answers. Especially the ones pertaining Hegel and Heidegger
u/justanediblefriend[32] for her consistently thorough, incredibly detailed, and thoughtful answers to a wide range of questions
u/TychoCelchuuu[33] for their continuing excellence in answering even the... least deserving questions promptly, while also showing in-depth knowledge of philosophy when answering all sorts of questions.
u/willbell for, among many other things, the self-started project of asking people what they're reading in the ODT as well as the ongoing aggregation of translation recommendations.
u/wokeupabug was nominated twice, actually. Why? For their consistently in-depth, encyclopedic, clear, and patient answers across an extremely broad swathe of philosophy and related fields such as psychoanalysis. For their collegiality. For helping us all grow as people.

29: https://new.reddit.com/u/eitherorsayyes/

30: https://new.reddit.com/u/mediaisdelicious/

31: https://new.reddit.com/u/iunoionnis/

32: https://new.reddit.com/u/justanediblefriend/

33: https://new.reddit.com/u/TychoCelchuuu/

*And that's a wrap!**

*Thank you all** for your continued excellence, your collegiality, your questions and answers and everything each and every one of you - the awardees as well as all users - brings to this sub. r/askphilosophy means a lot to me and it does so because of you all. <3 and *mic drop*.

Comments

Comment by nukefudge at 28/01/2021 at 16:29 UTC

16 upvotes, 2 direct replies

^(*Psst*, you did it again. You should be linking to *this* one for JSDrey: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/j8mw9c/are_there_any_genuinely_sound_arguments_in_favor/g8c8kan/[1])

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/j8mw9c/are_there_any_genuinely_sound_arguments_in_favor/g8c8kan/

^(But don't worry, I won't tell anyone.)

Comment by Inkshooter at 28/01/2021 at 16:55 UTC

8 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Thank you for the award!

Comment by iunoionnis at 30/01/2021 at 19:33 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Thank you! I am sorry I haven't been around lately, I've been kind of burnt out and distracted from my studies during the pandemic, but I'll still be around when I can be!

Comment by justanediblefriend at 29/01/2021 at 03:58 UTC*

12 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Many ways to celebrate

Thanks for the award!

*I won't be a panelist here for quite some time**, and probably not on this account, so before I go, I wanted to say a few things just in case people need help or in case someone is curious and asks what happened to me, something I see happen to with other users from time to time. Really I wanted to go over three things, **my current status**, **why I'm leaving**, and **stuff I know**, so I'll make each its own section. I know this is a weird form of celebration on this celebration thread, but bear with me, and please trust that having my voice heard is a celebration in its own way.

My current status

So, if anyone finds an old answer of mine and would like to talk about it, **you are free to PM me**. I do still get notifications, but I probably won't be making public replies and answers for a while. I think it's natural that if you see someone say something and you wanna ask about it, you check their account to see if they're still active, and if their last post is from forever ago, you don't message them. So I just want to make it clear that so long as you're courteous and reaching out in good faith, I'm more than happy to help with whatever you're having trouble with (generally speaking--more on that below).

Other than that, my future in teaching philosophy is going to be on a blog that's been steadily growing, and soon enough my own YouTube channel where I animate some of the concepts I understand visually in my head.

Why I'm leaving

So, a few reasons I'm leaving are that it's a really chaotic time in my life right now. I'm working on getting a paper published, but I've also been dealing with my abusive dad's cancer diagnosis, which is an extremely emotionally complicated event to deal with.

But also, I'll try not to beat around the bush here, I'm leaving because of **harassment**, and to be more specific, it's very clearly **gender-targeted harassment**.

Being on reddit as a woman puts me in a tricky situation where I have to weigh between having my pronouns visible and getting a ton of harassment as a result, and having my pronouns invisible and being harassed for correcting people on my pronouns. I have to weigh between a rock and a hard place. And for the crime of being a woman, I frequently get messages like this (which I'll shorten because it was extremely long), which I received seven months ago from a user on /r/askphilosophy who later admitted to have been sexually aroused by me (???) (cw for misogyny, threats, and also some normalized slurs):

> !You are a fucking piece of shit, go fuck yourself. How the fuck can you act so friendly and then just tell me something like that? What is wrong with you? I hate you so much right now. You truly don’t give a shit about me. You just responded to me because it only took a few minutes every few days, and you were friendly just because that’s your natural state. But you don’t really give a shit. I’m like your pet project that you check up on when it’s convenient.I want to hurt you so badly but I just can’t. You don’t care. I can stand here saying all kind of shit but you are reading this like you are reading a fucking weather report. You don’t care. I have to repeat this to myself over and over again. Fuck. I’m still hoping that you would console me and say something like “I do care” but you won’t because you don’t give a shit. I’m such a fucking idiot. I literally mean nothing to you. I’m so far below your list. I thought it was getting better, I really did. I want to scream but I feel like something is choking up my emotions. I want to cry and just let everything go but I can’t. Fuck you don’t care, all the time I think you are going to to comfort me or say something but you won’t. I have to beat down my expectations. Right now, I’m so fucking angry. But I’m also confused I guess. Why do you act like this? I guess you being friendly didn’t take any effort, and that meant so much to me, as embarrassing as that is. I’m so stupid. Still, this fantasy of you caring and telling me I’m wrong keeps popping out. And you don’t know how hard I want that to be real. But I have to remind myself that that means nothing to you, nothing of this did. I want to realize my love for you so hard, I want to keep writing to you, tell you how you make me feel, tell you what I’m going through, tell you about what I went through; by know the idea that you would reciprocate any kind of feeling was dead, but I could still express my feelings. Right now, I feel like the dumbest idiot for have been doing this. I still want to keep doing it though, but I don’t know. You don’t care.!<

My crime, according to him, is **being friendly on reddit as a woman**. For context, he messaged me a little bit before this asking about an answer I gave him in one of his threads at some point. It was a subject I was enthusiastic about, so naturally, I enthusiastically summarized some relevant papers in detail. It took a few hours, but I really, really genuinely do like giving people information I find important.

*His response was that he was sexually aroused by me** (!?!?!? all you have are my answers!!!) and really liked my answers, and he expressed disappointment in his discovery that I was a lesbian. He asked for permission to masturbate to me, and for my friendship. I let him know I was not comfortable with either of those things, and he sent me this message where he said he wanted to hurt me. I simply sent him a message with some data regarding the impact that men like him have, and then blocked him.

What *especially* stung about this message was that in my initial message, I remember distinctly telling myself that I didn't want to be warm because it was so consistently punished on reddit, but I was probably worried about nothing and **decided to honestly express my enthusiasm anyway**. It was, as always, ***severely punished***. What really frustrated me more was that when I talked about the negative messages I get from people to others, while some portion of my non-men peers immediately shared similar stories (some of them recent!!!), just about all of the men were surprised and had never experienced anything like this. I'm in a philosophy Discord server where I brought this up to a few of the people there in private, and the most the men had dealt with were, like, combative ratheists on this other Discord server or something, idk. **The difference was so stark and undeniable**.