site banner
PaperclipPerfector  22d ago (text post)   2767 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 25, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Another concept analogous to this is the is-ought distinction. Fact collectors care about what is and the conclusion seekers care about what ought to be.

You could also say this about autists and normies. Autists leaning towards more how things are and the normies obsessed with how things are supposed to be. Although I will admit this one is a reach.

Unrelated but, I think for a long time biology has been filled with fact collectors and not enough conclusion seekers. The conclusion seekers go into programming and engineering. Once these engineering type conclusions seekers come to the conclusion that we should be healthy forever and turn their intellect and focus on biology, that's the beginning of us becoming Human 2.0

People who have the ol' good clinically diagnosed autism often have limited range of interests and poor understanding of everyday things, including cause and effect.

Nerds have great obsession about how things should be according to their own pet theories. Normies won't care about irrelevant things, unless it is necessary or beneficial (and then it is no longer irrelevant)

You could also say this about autists and normies. Autists leaning towards more how things are and the normies obsessed with how things are supposed to be. Although I will admit this one is a reach.

It's the opposite, in my experience. Normies just deal with what is, and autists are very concerned with the way things ought to be.

Normies deal with what is, but get very upset if you accurately describe them as they are, instead of how they ought to be. Autists can deal with things as they are, as long they're labelled correctly, it's the dissonance between the actual state and the description that drives them nuts.

This seems to hit the nail on the head.

I wonder if this clash plays any sort of key role in autists often falling out of working life and social circles.

I feel like polite social life often requires a certain amount of lying. Not only to others, but even to yourself. It helps ease the tension in all sorts of awkward situations, if we can all just fib a little and pretend things don't exist. Autists really struggle with that. (And I say that as someone who is a bit autistic and a terrible liar)

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