site banner
Goodguy  15hr ago (text post)   Edited 12hr ago   4756 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.

This, at least the Dems have a semblance of shame in how they hand out their gibs and don't make it look like naked prima facie bribery.

I'm not sure that's good. I would have thought you'd appreciate having this stuff in the open where people can get mad about it, rather than buried in the bottom of a balance sheet about providing teddy bears for orphans.

I think shame is a good thing, and there are merits to both approaches.

The tribute that vice pays to virtue?

Ah hypocricy, my old friend. But really, bribing people outright displays lack of class in a way convoluted balance sheet gibs. Yes, that's bad too, and worse in a way because it's harder to explain to people why it's bad, but open public bribery? Even going off just vibes that's just ew...

Sure. I wasn't being pointed, I checking my assumption that you feel it's important for people to at least gesture towards knowing that bribery is wrong.

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