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.

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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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Recursive_Enlightenment

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joined 2022 September 06 02:09:16 UTC

User ID: 791

Recursive_Enlightenment

0 followers follows 0 users joined 2022 September 06 02:09:16 UTC

No bio...

User ID: 791

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 25, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 10mo ago

Counter-counterpoint, big donors respond to expectations of power. The more Trump is ahead, the better bet it is for the wealthy to give him money over Harris.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 25, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 10mo ago

As best I recall, they did not level any criticism at Harris which I assume meant they were not being honest or forthcoming.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 25, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 10mo ago

AI. Can relate to how students should be taught to write given AI, and what work will be available when AI gets even better and we get cheap robots.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

How about "I think I know your father, he is a police officer, right?"

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 18, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

What's with old people is that if you have had a serious medical issue you lose all sense of embarrassment and shame concerning your naked body because you deal with doctors and nurses looking at it, and you stop caring about how you appear when naked in front of others.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

The jury system is not good at determining medical causation.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

You can't trust the US legal system to determine if a vaccine caused an injury.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

But in a real free market, a condition of sale could be that you wave any legal liability for injury.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 4, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

Lots of leftists basically think Deliverance was a documentary and have a statistically unjustified fear of rural white Republicans. I don't doubt that some FEMA workers really were afraid to knock on the door of homes with Trump signs.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 4, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

Trump would likely respond to this with a call the end the Senate filibuster.

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U.S. Election (Day?) 2024 Megathread

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

Sports are profoundly important to lots of kids, and messing with them is, politically, on par with saying we should kill house cats to protect the environment.

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U.S. Election (Day?) 2024 Megathread

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

Probably meant "hoping Trump wins".

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

The only interesting thing is that the Congressman treated his professional staff like dirt, and they hated him for it, but they respected his intelligence and work ethic.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

Shows the harm of government regulation.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

A long time ago I was a congressional intern. The issue that generated the most mail was animal rights. Don't be surprised if this killing has political impact.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 21, 2024

Recursive_Enlightenment 11mo ago

I watched all of it, and the interview was highly inconsistent with the narratives that either Trump is Hitler or Trump is senile. The interview made Trump seem joyful. Funny to think back to the TV show NewsRadio (yes, I'm old) and consider that the actor playing the station mechanic played a key role in an US presidential election by interviewing Donald Trump.

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