site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1303 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 8, 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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Because the question is not factual. It's a "does this dress make me look fat" type of question. The good answer is what they want to hear.

It not like increasing IQ by a mere 15-20 points (not 100) is a difficult problem like terraforming Mars. Just the wish is not here.

Because the question is not factual. It's a "does this dress make me look fat" type of question. The good answer is what they want to hear.

nope

discussing how to tackle say corruption and overregulation can be interesting and fruitful discussion

rather than racist uninformed dismissal

Even if you tweak hard race definition to match current wealth of various areas it would completely fail how and why some areas got much richer within last decades (for example no matter how much you try you will NOT explain East Europe purely by "DNA IQ")

Let's not make strawmen and r-word accusations. Nobody claimed IQ is single causal variable, just the most significant one. East Europe poverty relative to West Europe is mainly due to having planned economy and communists in past. Having communism (IQ denying ideology) lowers your country prosperity for future decades.

Nobody claimed IQ is single causal variable

Are you sure? Seems to me that https://www.themotte.org/post/1116/transnational-thursday-for-august-8-2024/239006?context=8#context did this

Having communism (IQ denying ideology) lowers your country prosperity for future decades.

"IQ denying ideology" not sure has this problem existed there at all, and it was not actual source of problems

and r-word accusations

"Are you new to this forum? DNA IQ." seems quite clear "racism is right", at least I see no real difference

Are you sure? Seems to me that https://www.themotte.org/post/1116/transnational-thursday-for-august-8-2024/239006?context=8#context did this

Well unlike you, u dominicq was able to understand that correctly: https://www.themotte.org/post/1116/transnational-thursday-for-august-8-2024/239108?context=8#context

at least I see no real difference

if you come here to sneer rather than to learn...

That sounds like a pretty difficult problem, at least practically speaking.

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