site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   842 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 1, 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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

There's a big prisoner exchange in progress between Russia and US+friends. A bunch of political prisoners have disappeared in the last couple of days, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons has removed the data about several Russian inmates.

I wonder how hilariously one sided this one will be. Hopefully not as bad in terms of what is being encouraged and effects like Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange but I have no high hopes here.

It was one-sided, but from a different direction: about 2x more people released from Russia.

From what it looks like at a glance, though, the West gave away mostly Russian spies and assassins, while Russia released mostly relatively harmless dissidents.

Harmless to Russia or harmless objectively? These are not the same thing.

for me answer seems "both"

basically Russia found way to get their murders: just threaten to murder more people if you will not get them back! (see Navalny)

I'm talking about those that were sentenced on the fresh law about "discrediting the Russian Armed Forces", so, I assume, harmful mostly to the Russian government's ego.

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