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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.

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!

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PaperclipPerfector 2d ago (text post) 950 thread views

Transnational Thursday for May 22, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

NunoSempere 9hr ago

Geopolitics

Americas

US launched its second ICBM test this year

Africa

Christians in Africa are being prosecuted somewhat systematically, particularly in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram. "In 2024 alone, over 4,500 Christians in 12 countries across the Sahel region were killed for their faith, 114,000 Christians forcibly displaced, 16,000 homes destroyed, and over 1,700 churches impacted"

Sudan's army chief names former UN official as new prime minister

U.S. will impose sanctions on Sudan for using chemical weapons

Middle East

Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Syria is under attack. I remember thinking that Lisa thought this was important

Iran

Israel 'preparing strike on Iran's nuclear facilities'

Oil prices rise on signs of faltering U.S.-Iran nuclear talks

U.S. media reports: Should U.S.-Iran nuclear talks fail, Israel is prepared to quickly strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Gaza

14,000 babies could die in Gaza within 48 hours without aid: UN

Israel allowed some aid into Gaza

Britain, Canada, France condemn Israel's blocking of aid in Gaza, threaten sanctions

Gaza reports 326 malnutrition deaths, more than 300 miscarriages due to lack of essentials

New Gaza offensive

Yemen

Yemen's Houthis target Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, 3rd missile strike in 24 hours

Houthis declare naval blockade of Haifa port

Asia

China is integrating civil and military networks. "By connecting high-tech enterprises and facilitating data-driven collaborations, the platform accelerates the matching of military needs with available resources, resulting in timely and effective responses to various challenges. The platform features a comprehensive database that includes over ten thousand high-tech companies, hundreds of thousands of skilled personnel"

United States Develops "Orbital Aircraft Carriers" Endangering Space Safety, says China

Accelerate the building of China's independent military knowledge system. Another article in a similar vein as above.

China says ready to boost military-to-military ties with Russia

MEMRI warning about "China's Imminent Invasion Of Taiwan"

House Select Committee Warns: "The Window to Deter War with China is Closing Fast"

Oropuche virus rapidly spreading in Latin America; over 20K infected individuals ince late 2023

Riding the Waves! Full Throttle Live Fire Drill with Missile Speedboats

A squadron of missile boats from the Navy of the Eastern Theater Command has recently engaged in a comprehensive live-fire training exercise. This high-intensity session included a variety of drills such as maritime search and rescue operations, fleet patrols, and missile attack simulations, all aimed at enhancing the operational combat skills of the soldiers involved.

The training took place around the clock and involved multi-subject scenarios, systematically validating and improving the readiness of the naval forces for potential maritime combat situations.

India/Pakistan

3/4th of India's population at 'high' to 'very high' heat risk: CEEW study

Airlines Prepare for Nuclear War

Europe

Poland intervenes after Russian 'shadow fleet' ship detected near Baltic Sea cable

Russia stops Greek tanker leaving Estonia in tit-for-tat Baltic move

Bio

A paper in Nature looks at an outbreak of multidrug-resistant dysentery from 2021 to 2023 in Mexico

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for increased American involvement and support for the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led administration in Syria to prevent its potential collapse

Study shows that the 2022 mpox outbreak started in 2014

Tech and AI

xAI’s Grok 3 comes to Microsoft Azure

VEO 3 generates some pretty nifty videos

veo3 is a new model by Google that is able to create convincing (and addictive) video

VEO3 Interdimensional cable

Misc

Chances of a mega-tsunami hitting California about 15% over the next 50 years?

Also covered here

Briefing to the UN on the state of the protection of civilians in armed conflict

Netanyahu press conference

Context

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 Realtime Chats

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