site banner
Goodguy  1d ago (text post)   Edited 1d ago   8232 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.

12
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

If you think I'm here to defend Trump, you are badly mistaken. I have written about a dozen comments livid with Trump specifically saying that his behavior is shredding the coalition. At the same time, we need to realize none of this happens if Trump doesn't create the opportunity himself near single-handedly to begin with.

Trump indeed did betray the voters himself, but he's certainly not alone and it's worth it to talk about why and how it went off the rails. You're talking about the donor base after Trump already shredded the coalition.

Your criticism is true for a good portion of people, but it doesn't have much to do with me.

Don't think for a second that he isn't okay with whatever brazen corruption is occuring in the campaign finance realm.

you base this on what, exactly?

Trump isn't okay with brazen corruption, he just largely doesn't know about most of it and doesn't really want to be involved enough to know about it, especially when he feels it's other people making money off of his name (at least without him getting a cut). Trump isn't a details guy or a daily manager guy.

rather than treating it as an expandable franchise enterprise as the Democrats are wont to do

not for lack of trying, he's just not that competent at doing it and the GOP are largely the junior varsity team derps

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