The Motte

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
- Astral Codex Ten Discord
- Quokka's Den Telegram

@SkoomaDentist's banner

p

SkoomaDentist

The Greater Finnish Empire

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

User ID: 84

SkoomaDentist

The Greater Finnish Empire

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

No bio...

User ID: 84

‎

‎

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 11hr ago

Eh, I dunno. I think this is kinda catchy.

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 12hr ago · Edited 11hr ago

What did Azatoth ever do to hurt you so much that you have to compare him to Trump? That’s just rude, man.

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 18hr ago

Best to just go with "rained in".

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 1d ago

Norway is actually the #1 supplier to EU.

3

Context

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 1d ago

in most of Europe that still requires Russian gas

In what alternate reality?

Most of Europe is very much not dependent on Russian gas for generating electricity, particularly for electricity that is at least somewhat time flexible.

-1

Context

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 4d ago

Comrades, we found the fake Russian!

6

Context

Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 5d ago

"It's not like Europe is going to be holding military exercises in Greenland out of fear of the United States, or something."

2

Context

Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 6d ago

Not only is it not the greatest Irish song ever, it's not even the greatest song by the Cranberries: "Dreams", for one, is obviously superior.

Zombie doesn't even sound like other Cranberries songs and is a clear outlier.

3

Context

Link copied to clipboard

Action successful!

Error, please try again later.