site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3884 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 20, 2022

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 New Old Controversial
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Can you summarize why he owes that? I’m too lazy to click through all the links.

It's real simple. Emil did an edgy age of consent post calling for age of consent at 13 or lower, some writer called him a pedo linking to the post, Emil sued the guy for libel. Emil lost, now he owes court costs.

He filed a defamation lawsuit (over three comments under an article on Unz‌.com and one tweet), effectively lost at the preliminary-injunction stage (before the trial proper) (because the comments were statements of opinion backed up by linked articles, rather than assertions of fact backed up by nothing), and was ordered to pay half of the target's attorney fees (i. e., 13,500 pounds). He failed to pay that half, and the debt has mounted higher ever since.

What the hell how are the attorney fees for a case that didn’t even have a proper trial 13.5kx2=27k?? It this normal?

Smith (the target of the lawsuit) does not provide his "detailed assessment of costs" in the linked blogposts. Two items may be worth noting, however:

  • An entire year passed from the filing of the lawsuit (2018-12-07) to the denial of the injunction (2019-12-10); and

  • The law firm that Smith employed behaved badly enough that Smith sued the firm and recovered from it the other half of his costs (i. e., another 13,500 pounds).

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