The Motte

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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!

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EdenicFaithful

Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw

0 followers follows 0 users
joined 2022 September 04 18:50:58 UTC

User ID: 78

EdenicFaithful

Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw

0 followers follows 0 users joined 2022 September 04 18:50:58 UTC

No bio...

User ID: 78

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 26, 2025

EdenicFaithful Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw 5hr ago

So, what are you reading?

I'm retrying Carnegie's The Gospel of Wealth Essays and Other Writings.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 19, 2025

EdenicFaithful Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw 7d ago

So, what are you reading?

Still on The Eternal Dissident. Reattempting Isaiah Berlin's The Roots of Romanticism.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 12, 2025

EdenicFaithful Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw 14d ago

So, what are you reading?

I'm still on The Eternal Dissident.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 5, 2025

EdenicFaithful Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw 21d ago

So, what are you reading?

Still on The Eternal Dissident: Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act.

It seems strange that a Rabbi would proclaim himself agnostic and have his first sermon be about how Adam ought to have eaten the whole fruit of knowledge and not just part of it, but I have to agree with the introduction that there is an authenticity to it. Beerman, if he is to be believed, was inspired by the Spinozan God-as-nature idea, and argued that authentic doubt can be a religious stance.

The tropes fit perfectly into today's leftism: social justice, activism, inequality, racism, oppression, but these things must have made a different impression before Current Year. Various dubious aspects pepper the narrative, like support for the Rosenbergs. If there's one thing I've taken away from it, it is the reminder that I'm not exactly a church-goer myself, and that perhaps a renewed study of my relation to God is in order.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 28, 2025

EdenicFaithful Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw 28d ago

So, what are you reading?

Still on lots of things. Also attempting The Eternal Dissident: Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act.

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