site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   891 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

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?

I'm trying to finish Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This time around it is resonating, perhaps because the abstract desire for freedom is on my mind.

What I'm actually reading.

Finishing up the last book in The Warlord Chronicles, Excalibur, which I'm really enjoying. It's a gritty (although maybe not that historically accurate) Arthur retelling that I think thematically captures a lot of what the Arthur mythos is going for. Also reading After Virtue, which I am starting to enjoy more.

Warlord Chronicles is great. Always makes me crave playing a welsh ruler in crusader kings 2, 867 start, and forming prydain. Culture converting all vassals and provinces is mandatory, get bored afterwards.

Theres actually a CK2 mod for Warlord Chronicles, but it's not that good.

Makes me want to learn Welsh, especially since my ancestry is almost 100% British and Irish (with some Scandinavian blood). Would be practically useless but is very beautiful.

Do you know about the Winter King mod for CK2? You can just directly play as the book characters in the 480 start (edit: I see that you talked about this, guess the mod isn't that good)

Oh yes, I did. The mod is just not quite done and feels empty, but it's been 2 years+ since I last tried it so it may be better now.

I have 0% Welsh, Irish, or Anglo-Saxon ancestry but when I reread Warlord Chronicles I feel an insatiable urge to drive the Angles and Saxons back into the sea, just as Arthur would have wanted.

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