I’ve been here (well, ‘here’) for 7 years because this is the best-moderated generalist discussion forum on the internet, with the highest standard of writing and a generally friendly and polite audience who have many interesting stories and experiences to share. When something interesting happens in the world, you’re the people whose opinions I’m interested to hear about it.
I do wish that there were more of the principled and well-read leftists open to opposing views that I’ve met in real life here. They seem to be in short supply online. I also opposed the move from Reddit because I think it makes new user acquisition extremely difficult. There may be room for the gentle dissuasion of single-issue topic warriors, if only because it gets boring having the same arguments over and over again. Still, these are relatively minor complaints.
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
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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.
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Notes -
I’ve been here (well, ‘here’) for 7 years because this is the best-moderated generalist discussion forum on the internet, with the highest standard of writing and a generally friendly and polite audience who have many interesting stories and experiences to share. When something interesting happens in the world, you’re the people whose opinions I’m interested to hear about it.
I do wish that there were more of the principled and well-read leftists open to opposing views that I’ve met in real life here. They seem to be in short supply online. I also opposed the move from Reddit because I think it makes new user acquisition extremely difficult. There may be room for the gentle dissuasion of single-issue topic warriors, if only because it gets boring having the same arguments over and over again. Still, these are relatively minor complaints.
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