site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1280 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 17, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I don't really see how Europe is being "taken over by a green-red alliance."

You don't see it happening because it already happened.

Yes we currently have an upswing of right-wing sentiment as the leftist strangelhold on public discourse slackens, but that's because the leftists, in their time of triumph, overreached somewhat while already on the finishing line. But it's only a stumble; they can and most likely will recover, and if the footrace metaphor holds, then this stumble makes no difference because the right is crawling along far behind with its legs hacked off and bleeding out.

Alright, enough metaphor.

The left has already won. The takeover happened, and it held, and still holds. All public institutions all over Europe are firmly in the hands of leftist partisans. All the predominant narratives that public discourse rests on are shaped by leftist framing. And above all, greatest accomplishment and final victory of the left, demographics are a done deal. The natives are on an inescapable track towards becoming minorities in their own countries, and foreigners will become the majority in Europe within this century. There is no fixing this, and there is no suriviving it for the right.

The current electoral successes of the Right are too little, too late. Fait very much already accompli.

The left has already won.

There is an important point that is being left out: The left that "won" is the US influenced left. Not the traditional "workers rights"-left but the "We must always consider the feelings of BIPOC LBGTQ people"-left.

Or, conversely, US left is the Europe-influenced one. The switch from Marxist "workers of the world unite" framework to "long march through the institutions" started with Gramsci, why attribute it to the US? European Left enacted the shift no less than the US Left - while nominally preserving the "workers" rhetoric on the background, the actual focus went elsewhere - and has been much more successful at it. So I am not sure it is proper to call them "US influenced". The US Left may be getting more headlines - because the fight in the US is still on, while in Europe it has largely been concluded, with the remains of the Right waging guerilla campaigns on the margins of power - but that does not establish influence.

We had English rioters screaming "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" in a country where the police are famously unarmed. Unconscious bias and the push for diversity were justified by reference to the Harvard Business Review.

Woke came from America.

It's just "the current thing" manifesting. People scream what they see on TV. US TV is bigger than European TV.

Woke came from America.

Only in some narrow sense. US academia created the framework of wokeness. But European post-Marxist left created the US academia. Older US wokes still look at Europe with adoration, because that's where their ideological roots lie (even though I suspect diversity push would erase and replace those people quite soon, maybe even already happened, but the history remains). For the younger US wokes of course Europe is just a point on the map which has already been conquered and thus needs less attention than the current battles. For them, it's finally the time to get rid of the Western culture, and thus Europe is only a geographical location.

No. I refer to the European left that can trace its roots right back to the earliest Worker' organizations. Nowadays one might be able to see a difference between the socialists and the woke, but go back a few decades and they all blend together. And it doesn't do to just look at the current state of affairs - they started their great social project early in the last century, and made their great breakthroughs after the right thoroughly discredited itself in the middle of the last century, and prepared the way and the materials and the institutions and the narratives for all who followed later. The US left barely factors into it, and has not been the driving force behind the left's most singal victories. The leftist most influenced by the US left are the ones that showed up after the great work was already accomplished.

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