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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2920 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 5, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What happened with or to KulakRevolt/FromKulak? I never checked out the culture war threads since I got my fix from nrx blogs and Hindu Twitter, though I wish I switched out the latter with the CW here. This isn't an attempt to gossip or concern troll, he's clearly a very skilled writer and fairly smart, I don't have much context as to how he went from his motte post of the year to a much more cynical attitude.

I wish him well.

What happened is kind of a sad story. Kulak, you see, unsuccessfully attempted the hock… and the rest is as it is.

The hock?

IIRC (I probably don't): A while ago, a user on this site kept posting about how he was going to be dropped off by helicopter with nothing but a knife in an isolated location as a way to forge himself into a real man or die trying. The isolated location was Hock Mountain, so he called this escapade "the Hock". The moderators eventually banned him for being a single-issue poster, since he kept talking about it but never actually did it.

Pretty much. His hope was that completing The Hock would make him attractive to women, who he thought were picking up on the fact that he hadn't done anything tough in his life.

https://manifold.markets/BenjaminIkuta/will-skookumtree-pinetree-successfu

Specifically, he believed women weren't interested in him because they want (and can magically sense) a man who has overcome mortal danger. Thus the Hock.

I think this position is true in principle. Women are attracted to men on a mission. That user's solution seemed extreme. But if he had directed his energies into making meaningful strides in his chosen passion (such as, say, hiking) then I think there would be a lot to commend in it. And, as a happy side effect, he may well have become more attractive, or at least more fulfilled.

Women are attracted to men on a mission

He is/was an American med student. If he'd toughed it out a few years longer, I think his difficulties in getting laid would have been greatly ameliorated. I'm sure some nurse would have snatched him up regardless of his weapons-grade autism!

I think there's definitely something to what you say: women are attracted to men who have drive, who are capable of doing things, etc. I just don't think that SkookumTree's position was defensible. He believed that it was specifically overcoming mortal peril that women valued, and that they only wanted men who had done this. That was going too far, but he refused to listen to the many people trying to point that out to him.

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!

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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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