This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
- 1849
- 20
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
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Well in a way it does if equal rights implies freedom to practice your religion.
I don't know much about the Quran but my understanding is that it's about a warlord who goes around killing his enemies and making their women his wives. Meanwhile I think the Talmud is about a bunch of proto-lawyers bickering about different ways to interpret God's commands so as to not have to obey the most straightforward interpretation of it.
For example instead of staying home on Saturday as ordered by their God, they can claim the whole territory of NYC as their 'home' by creating a symbolic barrier all around it called an eruv.
Muslims who in my opinion have a more violent practice of their religion (as seen with violent bombings, beheadings, stabbings) are under a lot more scrutiny than jews who are experts at lawfare.
Hundreds of millions are probably spent to fight terrorism but white-collar criminals are more likely to get away with it, and some other types of crimes can also end up celebrated.
A few thousands deaths to explosive devices got us the Patriot Act and global internet surveillance meanwhile millions of death to opioids or abortion barely get any legislative action.
Tremendous efforts have been deployed to protect the general public from harms that can nebulously be attributed to islamic enthusiasts, while the harms that can nebulously be attributed to judaism enthusiasm have seen a great reduction in their quelling, from historical precedents.
As you yourself admitted, any problems committed by muslims in the West could also be blamed on jews:
What we have now is angry muslims violently protesting in the West, clashing with native police forces on behalf of the jews who are the ones who made them angry, and who are the ones who facilitated their arrival in the first place.
If some far-left groups are now suggesting to make muslims a protected class due to historical abuse by people in power in the Middle-East (ie Israeli or British colonizers etc), and get their way, then perhaps the balance will be somewhat restored. Until then I disagree that muslims and jews have equal rights in the West.
Or you need to clarify what you mean by 'equal rights'.
More options
Context Copy link