site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   1971 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 31, 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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So, what are you reading?

Still on Red Dynamite. Going through King Lear.

I finished To Kill a Mockingbird. When I put it down, I thought to myself, this is my favorite book.

I also watched the movie a few days ago, and while the first half is a bit slow, for a movie from 1962, it holds up terrifically well. For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Onto Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. A work trip brought me to the outskirts of Houston a few weeks ago and I drove by the Houston Space Center. That, coupled with my general interest in engineering, problem solving, and a good biographical yarn, led me to this book. A bit slow to start, but some interesting tidbits and trivia so far.

Edit: I also spent some time browsing Wikipedia on Harper Lee and Go Set a Watchman. Others can more eloquently describe the controversy about Go Set a Watchman, but basically, it's Harper Lee's second book release ever, and it was released when she was 85 years old. What I found interesting about the books release is that people close to Lee have speculated that her lawyer and closest confidant (after the death of Lee's sister) pushed Lee to release Go Set a Watchman. Lee was said to have had lost some of her mental faculties at that point, was half deaf and blind, and one person described her as willing to sign anything that was put in front of her. Seems pretty obvious that Go Set a Watchman was released as a cash grab and the ethics of those who allowed it to get published are fairly indefensible.

Watchman convinced me that the Mockingbird editor had a very heavy hand in that book.

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