site banner
PaperclipPerfector  22d ago (text post)   1139 thread views

Transnational Thursday for April 11, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

If you could have any country's governing style, what would you chose? No one seems happy with the one they have.

Singapore. It has its flaws like an extremely low birth rate and high competitiveness, but to some extent these are features of all modern Chinese civilization. I think high asset prices for long term secular reasons mean the housing market often works against poor and working class people, the government developing land for residential use and then leasing and selling it to most of the bottom 70% of the population in terms of income works well, while a private real estate market still exists for commercial property, rural property and housing for the wealthy. Singapore is essentially the world’s only high-functioning multicultural society, it’s the only place in the world where even Little India is largely clean and nice. It understands that while some racial spoils are inevitable, they have to be combined with extremely strict law enforcement and efforts to avoid ghettoes occupied solely by one tribe. I appreciate that extremely high salaries for senior officials attract higher quality people to the civil service and politics. Healthcare is both good and affordable as a percentage of GDP. Citizenship is quite hard to obtain, borders are strictly controlled, but wealthy and highly skilled foreigners are welcome to work there. Military service is mandatory, which helps discipline young men, brings together people from different backgrounds and inculcates a sense of shared national identity. There is no more competent current government, even though Singapore is certainly flawed.

Second place is Switzerland.

https://twitter.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1781083217333788959

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