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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3625 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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That's purely a dictate from the mods, rather than the users.

To be fair, it would be even harder to attract a varied userbase if we were coordinating to do activism here.

I don't know.

This site is incredibly steeped in Internet liberalism. The obvious aspect is our free-speech policy, but more generally, having a community based around getting into (reasonably) civil arguments is weird. It's part of the Internet tradition going back through atheist discussion boards and federated BBS. Take away the "no recruiting" rule, stop moderating for it, and the community will die. Not because the activists win, but because they are incompatible with the interesting bits of the site.

There's a certain irony in saying "gosh this individualism thing is awful rough" to a community summoned by those principles.

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.


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