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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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naraburns nihil supernum 5d ago (text post) 3994 thread views

Quality Contributions Report for April 2026

This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).

As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.

These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.

Quality Contributions to the Main Motte

"AAQCs Listed by User, August 2018 to March 2026"

@TitaniumButterfly:

"Book Review - The Enigma of Cranial Deformation"

"Mild mid-life crisis, or: orthoxerox's journey into the world of perfume"

"I can't really help with the meat, but I was a produce manager in a previous life."

"One Year in the Trucking Office"

@OliveTapenade:

"I feel like the Culture doesn't so much celebrate the triumph of liberal values as it does mourn their triumph."

Contributions for the week of March 30, 2026

"Oh boy, literature sniping, my favorite kind of geek-out."

"Infinite Jest is a book that is primarily concerned with the role of entertainment in American culture."

Contributions for the week of April 6, 2026

"Management thinks it's the best thing ever because it can automatically spam LinkedIn for them. Development uses it as a more accessible StackOverflow. But we've given up on agentic coding for the time being."

"Adobe has been a convenient punching bag for the enshittification trend as of late, and the purpose of this post isn't to pile on, but to illustrate how it's representative of a greater rot in the software business and how AI only seems to accelerate that rot."

"Real wreckers wear pantsuits."

@BigObjectPermanenceShill:

"Perhaps the root of evil is plebeian resentment as such."

@EverythingIsFine:

"So, I remember reading this a year or two ago, and I thought it was so apt I'm just going to roughly word-replace it because history rhymes."

@OliveTapenade:

@ControlsFreak:

"There is a huge debate about playing online or against engines, and this could certainly come up in a conversation about the controversy."

@IdiocyInAction:

"I often think about how societal surplus is spent."

@CrispyFriedBarnacles:

"I am in the unusual position that I was working on a commercial FPS when Half-Life came out in November 1998, and it had an immediate and dramatic impact on our game and all the game design that followed."

"Why the Orbán Era will end (unless something really weird happens)"

"I want Trump as Lincoln, Trump as FDR. I would basically be in favor of World War III."

Contributions for the week of April 13, 2026

"Professional life in America has a weird double reality happening. One where sex exists, men are horny, and women are using their bodies to advance. And one where we act like sexless automotons in the workplace and things are determined on merit and skill."

"If men are steeped in misogyny and treat women so horribly, how does it work that a supermajority of men view women positively, and a substantial minority of women view men negatively."

"America's optimal strategy is looking for some kind of force-multiplier, a wonder-weapon that can be used to lock in its advantages. AI fits perfectly."

Contributions for the week of April 20, 2026

@self_made_human:

"What Shouldn't Have Made The Cut"

"Nonprofits have broad discretion to use unrestricted funds any way they see fit to support their mission."

"German police chief Dirk Peglow has stated on national television that his advice to women who want to avoid violence is to avoid relationships with men."

"I, personally, do not like racists."

@CrispyFriedBarnacles:

"I don't think the overwhelming majority of people who are extremely skeptical of progressive shibboleths or even accept the general HBD frame want to bring back slavery or even be particular unkind to decent, law-abiding black citizens. But there is absolutely a spectrum of skepticism here..."

"But the typical incel is a lonely, sad, and yeah often times angry and frustrated guy, but the very elements that cause his inceldom like shyness and seclusion are also traits that 'protect' him from attacking people."

Contributions for the week of April 27, 2026

"ANZAC Day and Welcome to Country"

@MonkeyWithAMachinegun:

"This is, literally, unequivocally, without exaggeration, the work of Marxists and Marxist fellow travelers."

"Sure, we can smash their conventional forces, and their economy, and kill all their leaders. But in another twenty years there will be a fresh crop of military age males. And what will their formative experiences have been?"

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ToaKraka Dislikes you 1d ago · Edited 1d ago

But if I have the luxury of choice? Then California, baby. Or Texas.

Obligatory link to comparison of state freedom levels

State	Economic freedom (σ)	Personal freedom (σ)
California	−0.71 (48th)	+0.12 (11th)
Texas	+0.24 (6th)	−0.02 (50th)
Pennsylvania	+0.14 (16th)	+0.06 (34th)
Indiana	+0.19 (13th)	+0.09 (23rd)

(Ratings are based on the situation in 2022, but are measured relative to μ and σ for 2000–2022, not just for 2022.)

Or most of the US, really, probably excluding Alaska. Scotland is cold enough for me.

Interactive global map of average daily maximum temperature on a monthly basis

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self_made_human amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi ToaKraka 1d ago

While I appreciate the effort, they don't call it the Land of the Free for nothing. I'm sure the lowest ranked state would spank the entirety of the UK.

And I suspect that the climate map is slightly misleading in terms of presentation, if you don't carefully compare across seasons, you'll miss the dramatic temperature shifts seen in some parts.

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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 Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats

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