Contact Us
Sign In
Sign Up
Rules Admins Moderation Log Random Post Random User
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
- Astral Codex Ten Discord
- Quokka's Den Telegram

PaperclipPerfector 15hr ago (text post) 505 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 5, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Opt-out 8hr ago · Edited 8hr ago

New Timeline just dropped. Hunter Biden joined Twitter two weeks ago and amassed a lot of followers. He is kind of funny.

Is he the front runner for POTUS in 2028 election?

I think I might vote for him.

He needs to be harder on immigrants to get my vote. Just because I would never trust a Dem to not get run over by the NGOs and let in unlimited migrants.

I don’t think America ever wants to elect another Romney. We want entertained so go pick the most absurd populists you can find.

Edit will give links and takes:

https://x.com/hunterbiden/status/2062880174254010399?s=46

https://x.com/signulll/status/2062602162857779536?s=46 https://x.com/shagbark_hick/status/2062709558246584513?s=46

Context

Bartender_Venator Opt-out 7hr ago

Ride-along question on this: Mottizens, do you think this is actually Hunter Biden, or is it a brilliant publicist? My money's on the latter - it's too perfectly Online, and it doesn't read at all like any of the Hunter Biden writing/messages we've seen. Also insanely good at hitting as many DNC youth outreach talking points as possible. Or maybe Hunter secretly got Extremely Online? He was seeing some dirtbag left egirl for a while.

Context

Opt-out Bartender_Venator 6hr ago

If he went for his father’s 1990’s politics I think he could have a good chance. The big issue his dad had was it felt like he was captured by the modern Democratic machine. My gut says if he runs he would be better off doing it as an independent as it would ease a lot of fears he will be controlled like dad. I think he could even pick off the MAGA vote. Trump does have an issue now that it feels like he’s controlled by Israel. And Hunter does feel American. So he could pick off a lot of Dems dissatisfied with the far left too. And maga does like a FU candidate which he fits.

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 Realtime Chats

Link copied to clipboard

Action successful!

Error, please try again later.