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naraburns  nihil supernum  14d ago (text post)   2728 thread views

Quality Contributions Report for September 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

@Lewyn:

@gattsuru:

@George_E_Hale:

@Thoroughlygruntled:

@FtttG:

@Rov_Scam:

@ThomasdelVasto:

Contributions for the week of August 31, 2026

@gattsuru:

@quiet_NaN:

@FtttG:

@OracleOutlook:

Contributions for the week of September 7, 2026

@georgioz:

@Ioper:

@FCfromSSC:

@FtttG:

@NullHypothesis:

@TitaniumButterfly:

@MayorofOysterville:

Contributions for the week of September 14, 2026

@falling-star:

@IdiocyInAction:

@Tanista:

@Brainwavez:

@DaseindustriesLtd:

Contributions for the week of September 21, 2026

@georgioz:

Contributions for the week of September 28, 2026

@CrispyFriedBarnacles:

@FiveHourMarathon:

"Battle" of the "Sexes"

@ratherblather:

@cjet79:

@faceh:

@self_made_human:

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"Some people did something, as a certain Congresswoman said, but we're not going to cede the whole moral core of the faith by saying it's Muslims as such."

Funny, I was just thinking of this comment chain, and some claims I made because of this new CATO article

Data from the State Department through February 2026 show that the Trump administration has cut legal immigration by nationals of 45 majority-Muslim countries by 96 percent since December 2024. Monthly immigrant visa issuances and permanent lawful refugee admissions fell from 21,096 in December 2024 to 808 in February 2026.

The graph below shows that this outcome was not the result of seasonal trends since the drop from February 2024 was nearly as significant. Immigrant visas—primarily for family members of US citizens—were down 95 percent. Meanwhile, refugee resettlement—immigrants admitted lawfully based on threats of persecution abroad—was completely ended for majority-Muslim countries, dropping from 5,157 admissions in December 2024 to 0 admissions in February 2026.

I guess this is a win for @Iconochasm, because my take was that Trump had downsized the Muslim ban because of the problems with getting it passed. I had heard from family that he'd made processing for West African countries much harder (by requiring a large bond) but didn't think other nations were that impacted.

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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!

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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."

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