While reading this thread, I noticed a few trends in how new users and old users alike are relating to the site’s culture and wanted to share some potentially relevant theory.

Specifically, there were some comments essentially discouraging people from viewing people who are more well-read or who have been on the site longer as The Knowledge Havers. This idea is called the banking model and it’s well refuted in Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire. That might not be the place it’s most famously refuted or most thoroughly disputed, but it’s likely the most explicitly Marxist and certainly the most likely to have been read by people here. It’s also very approachable for newbie leftists.

So if the idea of a central authority as the repository or expertise is not true, then what is? There are many models, but I think one of the ones that applies best to this site is Situated Learning, specifically the concept of Communities of Practice. In Communities of Practice, old timers maintain a knowledge base collectively as well as norms and practices for sharing that knowledge with newcomers. Newcomers, meanwhile, challenge existing procedures through the learning process and expose the group to novel concepts and experiences that they wouldn’t otherwise find. You could say it’s a dialectical system. You can learn more about this via Situated Learning by Lave & Wenger.

I’d also be happy to talk more about any of these topics or give more reading recommendations.