site banner
PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3824 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Are the death penalty (and penal theories broadly) not downstream from how we feel about others? Such that it’s about feelings, and not “theory”?

  • I can imagine a criminal to whom I have no social feelings; if the crime is bad, I would like him punished severely, even to the point of death. This is because the absence of administering the punishment is evolutionarily painful to me. Humans evolved to want to punish wrongdoers.

  • I can, for brief moments, imagine myself being such a loving Amish fella that I genuinely love every human as if they were an adorable puppy or priceless artifact. And I see their sins almost like “mistake theory”. If this is a person’s abiding belief, and he believes in an afterlife, then I can imagine the evolutionary need for revenge simply turning off, entirely.

Is there necessarily more to it than this? Those who opposite the death penalty probably don’t have an abiding feeling of vengeance. Those who support it would probably feel better knowing crime is taken care of (a sense of balance being restored).

I'm vaguely in favor of the death penalty, but not so much as a penalty.

It just seems that some humans are irredeemable and mentally broken enough that it seems like the only thing to do is to just remove them entirely.

If you had a tied up evil person (Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc take your pick) and a gun in hand, what would you do?

For the punishment minded maybe they shoot the person in the gut and let him die a slow death over a week. I'd generally just shoot them in the head and be done with it.

If someone has personally wronged me I become all in favor of punishment. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, but I feel that the emotional response is not a good guide for society wide policy.

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