This is pretty spot on, but I have one thing to add--I think far more than people believing ideas that confer social status, they believe things that benefit their role in society. For example, professors almost always believe things that would elevate their role in society--some sort of technocratic socialism/marxism being the obvious historical example along with its descendant cultural marxist philosophies. Likewise, people in industries that suffer from expensive federal regulation, like oil, tend to be libertarian (the koch brothers)
Sorry, my original comment was mod-hatted and referenced the wrong part of the rules as you point out. I thought I caught my error fast enough with my edit. You are correct that a submission statement is not necessary, it's still appreciated though.
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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Not surprising in the least.
More options
Context Copy link
This is pretty spot on, but I have one thing to add--I think far more than people believing ideas that confer social status, they believe things that benefit their role in society. For example, professors almost always believe things that would elevate their role in society--some sort of technocratic socialism/marxism being the obvious historical example along with its descendant cultural marxist philosophies. Likewise, people in industries that suffer from expensive federal regulation, like oil, tend to be libertarian (the koch brothers)
More options
Context Copy link
When did bias become so bad or such a negative word? Being biased against smoking or junk food seems beneficial.
Are you serious? What is positive about confirmation bias? Cognitive biases literally pull you away from the truth.
Negativity bias, hallo effect, hindsight bias, anchoring bias, false consensus effect, band wagon effect, do I need to go on?
Biases lead us away from truth.
Being correct for the wrong reasons is still a mistake.
More options
Context Copy link
we've renamed bias as "priors" to avoid the negative connotation
Cognitive biases are not priors. They make you misjudge your priors, and update the probability in a skewed way.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
No submission statement, not reading.
Your loss.
The rules do say:
You can add a quick comment to your post either with your own words or just copy a block quote.
That's in the culture war part:
This is not a culture war post.
The general part clearly says:
This is a link to a largely-text post, isn't it?
Sorry, my original comment was mod-hatted and referenced the wrong part of the rules as you point out. I thought I caught my error fast enough with my edit. You are correct that a submission statement is not necessary, it's still appreciated though.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link