site banner
Goodguy  11hr ago (text post)   Edited 8hr ago   4008 thread views

Midterms Megathread

Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.

The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I grew up in Texas before I was in Florida, but 20 points is nuts, is Paxton that bad?

Yes. Paxton is terrible. I’m mostly disappointed Abbott couldn’t outrun him enough to keep an insane socialist who’s never had a job from thé top spot.

Nah, Paxton is a great candidate. He would have been the best Senator in DC. The reason Paxton went down in flames is because the NRSC spent $150,000,000 ruining his reputation to defend Cornyn and then when Cornyn lost anyway 65-35 the Texas GOP then went on a tour to make sure Paxton lost by mobilizing "reasonable conservatives" like Karl Rove and George Bush to denounce Paxton and cutting off Paxton from the donor network. The only reason Paxton has money is because of small donors and Elon Musk spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cornyn would have lost even worse. This is the GOP sabotaging the GOP candidate. And in this regard, Abbott is hardly innocent, he just didn't realize this sabotage would cost him the Governor's mansion also. Texas GOP voters should be livid, but it shouldn't be at Paxton.

Abbott

Outrun

I see what you did there

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