Ok I've been thinking more about why it the culture war periodically generates heated disputes about, like, correspondence theory of truth or non-standard models of arithmetic - intensely abstract things related to formal science that don't seem to be of political relevance...
... one aspect of it (far from the only thing going on, but just what I am thinking about here) is surely the gap in expectations about what the pertinent questions are between people who work on those topics and IDW people who primarily experience them via online discourse...
... so, like, when as Enthusiastic Nerd you see suddenly everybody wants to talk about your weird pet topic, it's like: great! You're excited about all these surprising little known facts you can share, or to see people passionate about complex debates you find fascinating...
... that is to say, one only studies these things to a high level precisely because they don't behave like one might intuitive think. There'd be little to no interest in simply repeating common sense, after all; we get into topics because of complexities to be teased out etc...
... but then one encounters the actual discourse. To you, considering weird scenarios where arithmetic doesn't work like it normally does is intrinsically fun, can reveal deep facts about the nature of mathematics, and is a source of creative solutions to engineering problems...
... but the people you are responding to just don't have anything like that background, at all. They have come to think about the same topics, but to them pertinent nearby debates are something like - can we know any truths at all, and if so does mathematical proof suffice?...
... because for them the relevant dialogical opponent isn't someone who spends all their time thinking about abstract mathematical science, but rather somebody with a humanities education who is really interested in cultural theory and debates about the foundation of knowledge...
... and so the creative weirdness that you love in this topic is to them an annoying distraction from the point they are trying to make, and seems like obtuse trouble making. This in turn will seem like an anti-intellectual or close minded attitude to the intelligentsia nerd...
... I don't really know how to arrest this dynamic beyond being aware of it. I admit that I in fact do get annoyed - I'm an enthusiastic nerd with niche interests around here, and I like talking logic and philosophy! - but I shall have to redouble my efforts to be understanding.
P.s. I bet this is all very obvious to people who aren't me. But it took me actually explicitly thinking about this repeated dynamic to notice the pattern!
