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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).

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SkoomaDentist

0 followers follows 0 users
joined 2022 September 04 19:08:00 UTC

User ID: 84

SkoomaDentist

0 followers follows 0 users joined 2022 September 04 19:08:00 UTC

No bio...

User ID: 84

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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 20, 2024

SkoomaDentist 1d ago

Jamaica is by far the largest country, and has the highest murder rate in the world at 53/100k

Holy shit. That really is higher than even Haiti and that place is as failed state as they come.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 4d ago

That solved the problem. Thanks!

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago

Well, the last-last one did just get banned...

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago

See for yourself

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago

iPad mini, Safari. It's been there since this site was started so at least two iOS versions ago.

It looks like this.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago

jannies are treated as valued curators of harmony, not power tripping egoists.

That applies to almost all jannies here. Alas, there is always that one or two who end up power tripping and should be forbidden from any janny duties that aren't just obvious spam removal. This has been the case since almost the beginning back on reddit.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

SkoomaDentist 5d ago · Edited 5d ago

Is there some way to disable the goddamn annoying and completely useless bar that sticks to the ~~top~~ bottom of the screen when scrolling threads here?

On desktop I can use uBlock Origin to just hide it, but that doesn't work on mobile.

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