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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pusher_robot

PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

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joined 2022 September 04 23:45:12 UTC

User ID: 278

pusher_robot

PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

0 followers follows 0 users joined 2022 September 04 23:45:12 UTC

No bio...

User ID: 278

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Friday Fun Thread for October 30, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 20hr ago

Get a meat injector (giant syringe) and fill it with liquid soap and a green glow stick. Put on a bloody lab coat and now you're The Reanimator

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 1d ago

I've spitballed a modest proposal around national mandatory summer camp from about age 12 to 16 (with exemptions for the employed). Being someplace away from home and family even for a couple of weeks builds a huge amount of independence, IMO. Even more so if some basic life skills (cleaning, scheduling, meal prep) are imparted. Punishment details, administered far away from where mommy and daddy can bully staff on your behalf, can teach lessons about actions and consequences, and counselors can be real about a lot of facts of life that family and schools won't, and have enough age proximity to have credibility.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 5d ago

I'd wager innocent black men worry a lot more about being victimized by other black men than about not being able to collect handguns.

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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 5d ago

Mental health treatment was much worse back then, and consisted heavily of involuntary confinement, surgery, or just enough benign neglect to let nature take its course. But it did have the effect of keeping it away from the rest of society to a higher degree.

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 5d ago

I sympathize with everyone but especially Jane Doe because she got sold an idea of female empowerment and sexuality that is pretty incompatible with like 80% of women and found out the hard way.

The young men were sold the exact same story and are being punished much more harshly. Why more sympathy for her exactly?

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 5d ago

I live in Milwaukee and have been a Brewers fan my whole life! I was at Game 2 Saturday screaming myself hoarse. Go Brewers!

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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026

pusher_robot PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS 5d ago

The thoughts and feelings of humans are also electric patterns whose rules are fundamentally governed by physics that can be expressed mathematically. While I'm aware this can lead to sociopathic territory, I'm not fully convinced this is substantively more "real" because it runs a meat substrate rather than a silicon one. The moral differences will probably have to come from elsewhere.

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