site banner
PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   979 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.

It is them that moved Europe to the left.

By which mechanism? US academia does not control anything in Europe, and certainly didn't rebuild Germany or anything like that. I could admit it if Europe's academia were constantly adoring and copying American one, but at least for the "humanities", the relationship is exactly the opposite.

Sanders was the only one with reasonably strong rhetoric on the issue,

That's not true, virtually every prominent Democrat had been pro border enforcement before they were against it. Here's Senator Obama: https://www.c-span.org/clip/news-conference/user-clip-sen-barack-obama-on-illegal-immigration/4656370 you can easily find clips from others. By today's standards, this is literally Hitler. But 2005's standards, that's a common Democrat position which is part of the mandatory program, you can not be a serious politician if you don't support it.

Black Lives Matter, Trans Women Are Women

BLM is indeed uniquely US phenomenon, but I do not think it had any influence on European politics - mass immigration already shifted the power balance by then, and Europe's pro-migration policies have very little connection with it. As for trans issues, Europe is a bit more diverse on that issue (just as the US is if we look per-state) but European ideologues have been at the foundation of it. Psychoanalysis came from Europe. Postmodernism came from Europe. Deconstruction came from Europe. Post-structuralism came from Europe. Without all of this, the theory of "socially constructed gender" would not be possible.

cutting off your friends over politics is also something we imported from the US.

Oh come on. This one is from early 1900's: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/748/804/d0e but I am sure the phenomenon existed long before that.

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