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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.

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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

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 17hr ago

I can read the wikipedia article on gun politics in the EU.

I don't think you can because there is no such thing as "gun politics in the EU" (something people on The Motte very often fail to realize). There's gun politics in country X that happens to be in EU but those are all different between the countries.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 1d ago

cloud of violence

That’s climate change for you.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 3d ago

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

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 3d ago · Edited 3d ago

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

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 3d ago

Best to just go with "rained in".

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 4d ago

Norway is actually the #1 supplier to EU.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

SkoomaDentist The Greater Finnish Empire 4d 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.

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