site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1915 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 12, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

A recent patch for the video game Victoria 3 has added a mechanic for the creation of "power blocs" by countries that have achieved the rank of "major power". A power bloc can be focused on trade (customs union and open borders), hegemony (the British Empire), ideology (Austria's Metternich System), military (mutual defense), or religion.

In real life, we all know about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. But did you know that there are many other international organizations of similar nature?

Et cetera.

There's also the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation., recently joined by Belarus. In what was meant to be a nod at NATO designs on Belarus, Chinese sent a couple of transport planes of soldiers to Belarus for a joint anti-terrorism exercise.. .

With One Belt One Road maybe China could supply an army in Europe via Russia. The world is getting smaller.

Trans-siberian railways has been in place for a 100 years. Russians could supply their far-eastern Manchuria offensive pretty handily.

Now there's even an additional track laid through Kazakhstan to Yekaterinburg, and trans-siberian railways has a parallel railway to it going a bit more north to it too..

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