Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 180
- 0
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
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I have been meaning to write an effort post on this. The reason is that the modern woke worldview is already 9/10s of the way to being an antisemitic conspiracy theory. It holds that a certain ethnic group (white people) is responsible for all the problems in both America and the world. The way this ethnic group did that is by displaying racist high in-group preference, conspiring that all high ranking positions in society are controlled by that ethnic group. That way they can control the flow of wealth in the entire world away from those who need it, and to themselves and themselves alone. The ethnic group has also enforced this racial dictatorship by developing a years long stranglehold of not just politics, but of media and culture as well. All you need to do to turn that into something out of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is drop in a single triple parenthesis so that instead of white people it’s (((white people))). This is not helped by the fact that Jews are often high achieving and end up in many high positions of power and cultural authority in the society that the woke despise so much. Karl Marx said that antisemitism is Communist class warfare for morons, and surprise surprise, when you try to Communize a bunch of college morons, you are going to turn a lot of them into antisemites.
I think there are some other factors too, but this is the main one.
More options
Context Copy link