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.
- 189
- 1
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
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
https://12axes.vercel.app/ was terribly confused by my answers. I simply wanted atheist designer babies for everyone, as long as the parents adopt the local language.
Wow, imagine congenitally condemning your own children to eternal damnation. Could not be me.
Edit: Apparently I’m an Archeofuturist and a 100% match with Steve Bannon. Never take these seriously but this one is the least bad. I noticed both the short and medium tests lack any questions that directly address race or ethnicity, a major missing component unless I was unlucky in the Q selection.
Archeofuturism (91% MATCH)
A doctrine coined by Guillaume Faye that fuses archaic, hierarchical and traditionalist values, ethnic identity, spirituality and a warrior ethos with an unreserved embrace of advanced technology, arguing that an approaching civilizational collapse will force humanity to combine tribal social order with hyper-modern science.
More options
Context Copy link
Figures closest to you, 93% match
(Feeling a bit seen tbh...)
Zapata, Gandhi and Chesterton also in the mix apparently; happily I am incompatible with Stalin, Goebbels and Genghis Khan though!
More options
Context Copy link
Federalism (center) - 90%
I believe in federation (like the fediverse): my ideal government is groups organized into hierarchies that mostly regulate themselves and have loosely democratically elected representatives (in this way, like Yud’s dath ilan. In more detail: the representatives are for cross-group conflicts, and the people in the lowest groups and representatives in higher groups act like small neighborhoods, so it’s at least “loosely” democratic in that any individual can significantly affect their group’s policy and representative, like how any individual can significantly affect their small town).
But I also believe in states’ (and towns’) rights, at least to the extent that people can leave (so no slavery, but if a community wants to be racist and exclusionary, I think they should be left alone). I think some “central” entity is useful, but I don’t like strong centralization. Does that go against federalism?
Well, that’s a relief.
More options
Context Copy link
I mercifully did the short quiz only because I just got a blank page at the end.
More options
Context Copy link
Eco-Conservatism
Well, I've never used that label to describe myself and I don't think I will anytime soon, but nonetheless guilty as charged I suppose. I've always been convinced that conserving nature is conservative, not progressive. I've read too much Tolkien as a teenager, so now I'm immune to the pervasive but incoherent culture war dichotomy of our age which somehow imagines destroying nature in favour of economic liberalism as conservative and opposing that as progressive. Scrolling down a bit, in "other matches" it gives Christian Democracy and Distributism, which are labels I'm more likely to identify with, so fair enough. Contrary to a lot of these types of political tests I feel like this one actually captured my political values pretty well.
Only 15 out of the 223 ideologies in the catalogue hold both of these positions. Closest matches: Conservative Liberalism, Mutualism, Minarcho-Mutualism
More options
Context Copy link
Libertarian militarism for me. As a strongly pro 2A libertarian whose faith in open borders has been fairly well broken by the last decade, that sounds about right. It looks like I'm a little too nationalist for a full libertarian sweep, but otherwise stick pretty close to the expected branding.
More options
Context Copy link
Radical Centrism. I knew it!
I just think that, like so many multiple choice questionnaires, a lot of my answers are "it depends".
Spot on, anarchism is very stupid.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link