Contact Us
Sign In
Sign Up
Rules Admins Moderation Log Random Post Random User
What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.

Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.

New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!

Rules
Recommended Posts And Communities
Recommended Realtime Chats
- Quokka's Den Telegram
- Astral Codex Ten Discord

@AshLael's banner

p

AshLael

Just here to farm downvotes

2 followers follows 0 users
joined 2023 June 15 03:16:03 UTC

Verified Email

User ID: 2498

AshLael

Just here to farm downvotes

2 followers follows 0 users joined 2023 June 15 03:16:03 UTC

No bio...

User ID: 2498

‎

‎

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

No argument there, it's a stretch to say that Haiti is run at all.

8

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

I'm still amazed he didn't realise that the Haitians were just trying to get free medicine that they could later sell.

18

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

I would definitely not say that DR is well run. Corruption is endemic, crime is high, and basic services like electricity are unreliable.

But they are serious about keeping Haitians out.

13

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

And more recently, stripped people of Haitian descent of their Dominican citizenship.

8

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

Because the Dominican Republic has actual immigration enforcement.

Not a joke. Obviously it's not practical to guard every inch of the border (which is quite mountainous). But they have checkpoints all throughout the country with soldiers checking cars for Haitians. They deported a quarter of a million Haitians in 2023.

Dominicans are openly racist towards Haitians, they do not want Haitians in their country, and they commit serious resources to keeping them out.

37

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 26, 2024

AshLael Just here to farm downvotes 11mo ago

Yeah I agree. The judge read the law right, it's what the law says that is the problem.

Queensland is headed for a landslide LNP win soon, it'll be interesting to see if the new parliament is game to change this. I think probably yes - both sides of politics seem to agree that trans issues are working for the right currently (with Labor trying to downplay them), and QLD doesn't have an upper house to get in the way.

15

Context

Link copied to clipboard

Action successful!

Error, please try again later.