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The Motte and the future

So the move has been made. Potential shut down by Reddit has been avoided. Huzzah!

But people are still worrying about where new members are going to come from. And things are still being organized in the same terrible way as /r/ssc when they were trying to quarantine the culture war from the rest of the sub. And sprinkles around you have a few small threads for other weekly topics or talking about the new site.

A dedicated site deserves a nu start. Rather than purposely making quality writing harder to find, it should be highlighted. (I know the quality contributions roundup exists, but it certainly isn't exhaustive.) Seriously, have you ever gone back and tried to read an old weekly culture war thread with its thousands, potentially tens of thousands of comments? It is an unnecessary slog if you are looking for something and don't have a link. And sometimes you 'continue reading' and go back only to find that you've lost your place. It just makes you say, "I blue myself."

I do have some suggestions on some of the changes I'd like to see more that there is a dedicated website. First, I'd like to see a webpage highlighting quality contributions and other content from the forum. Something that I can easily link a friend to rather than a nested comment in response to some insane person ranting "There's a man inside me!" Or whatever.

Secondly, I think some editorial prompts for content for the sure would be good. Adversarial collaborations and whatever else. Just easier ways to find good writing from the site.

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I didn't want to make a separate thread for this, so I'll leave it as a comment: I think we have a serious issue with diversity of opinion. This was already pretty bad on Reddit, but there seems to have been a step change for the worse in the few days this new site has been up. I'm not against people sharing reactionary or anti-woke points of view but when there's nothing to counterbalance them it feels less like a forum for debate and more like the world's highest effort Daily Mail comments section. I foresee this being an increasing issue, since now the Motte is moored in the digital equivalent of international waters, there is a far lower chance that progressive voices will chance upon the community by accident. Moreover, lack of diverse perspectives induces a harmful feedback cycle, since if someone sees at least some representation of their viewpoints they are more likely to pitch in, while if they just see a load of right-wingers competing to be the most critical of 'wokeism', in all likelihood, they will leave as quickly as they entered.

I accept that I'm not the first to raise this point (I believe this was a motivating factor for the removal of the bare-links repository) but since this isn't a problem that looks likely to solve itself I feel obliged to raise it again in the hope that we can work towards a solution.

I'm not against people sharing reactionary or anti-woke points of view but when there's nothing to counterbalance them

I have not been able to have many rational discussions with a woke activist. I usually get accused of something along the lines of blasphemy and get called something silly (like a trump supported or an 'ist... I'm not).

If most of reddit is a woke echo chamber; why would anyone go to a place where there is push back on their views?

Woke Activist isn't the opposite of Mottizen though, any more than Daily Mail Commenter is equal to Mottizen.

I agree. I feel like 'Mottizen' should encapsulate many view points... Just be open minded to others.

My point is why would they come here? They pretty much won and can control the narrative on their platform. Why then go to a place where you have no control and can be challenged?

I honestly think this is the problem with that kind of censorship. At first it kind of made sense... The reddit alts were awful (remember voat) but it kept going. And now I feel like it flipped, to the point where reddit is getting pretty awful.

Also, when you live in an echo chamber, your arguments get weak... How many people really seek out being challenged?

A) Well, I'm here, aren't I?

B) Not every lefty is a Woke Activist but all lefties will be driven away if every post's unjustified base assumption is that there's a global woke conspiracy seeking to Harrison Burgeron the white people into submission.

...every post's unjustified base assumption is that there's a global woke conspiracy seeking to Harrison Burgeron the white people into submission.

Isn't this an unjustified assumption? I mean, every post? I think the grey area here is how many posts are there actually like this? Or do you want to see these removed? If so, please see my echo chamber point above.

I feel like you're missing my point... So allow me an analogy.

I was a atheist since I was a teenager... and I grew up in a very religious community and most people knew I was a nonbeliever (to the embarrassment of my parents). Now, a lot of people would test me. They would hear things along the lines of, "Atheists think but what about ". Then would try to 'save me' with these silly arguments.

This led to me learning how to debate, learning (usually the hard way) about logical fallacies, actually studying religion, creating my own version of the Jeffersonian bible, etc.

Most people who tried to 'save me', got very angry when I pushed back at all. They wanted to be righteous! Not have their ideas questioned... How dare I not be the strawman they were told I was. They came in thinking they had all the answers, and I was able to show them they didn't.

That said, some of the people who tried to 'save me' were very thoughtful and over coffee or beers, we had some great debates (and some great friendships too).

My point: I either had to get really good at defending myself or always keep my mouth shut. And (most) evangelicals got intellectually lazy because of their echo chamber.

So, the point I've been trying to make this whole time... The woke on reddit have had it easy for a while now. It's great that you're here (I seriously respect it) but you're asking people who've rarely been challenged to come to a rationalist community and try to make arguments... And they're going to have a hard time because they've become ideologically soft. And really, a lot of people react negatively to finding out they don't know as much as they think they do.

Isn't this an unjustified assumption? I mean, every post? I think the grey area here is how many posts are there actually like this? Or do you want to see these removed? If so, please see my echo chamber point above

Prediction, not assumption. It's not every post right now, but it's certainly trending upwards. I don't want to see them removed. It would be neat to fork then CWR thread into that vs everything else, but really I'd just settle for more... everything else posts.

Because the everything else posts are just plain more interesting! Look at the thread right now; healthy discussion on that NYT article, and much less on the NFL livery.

Maybe it's a losing battle-maybe I'm some sort of rare lib who doesn't screech. But I too have had lively debates over beer with people who I totally disagreed with and I think it's a good experience more people ought to have.