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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.

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PaperclipPerfector 3d ago (text post) 1144 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 26, 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.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

NunoSempere 3d ago

Things I'm tracking (besides Lebanon)

Geopolitics

Iraq also attacked Israel https://www.palestinechronicle.com/iraqi-resistance-drones-attack-israel-in-first-sirens-heard-in-bisan/

China seems to be producing drones for Russia https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-has-secret-war-drones-project-china-intel-sources-say-2024-09-25/

Hezbollah launched a ballistic missile to Tel Aviv. It was intercepted https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanons-hezbollah-says-it-launched-rocket-targeting-mossad-base-near-tel-aviv-2024-09-25/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/25/israel-hamas-war-latest-news-hezbollah-64/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/25/hezbollah-fires-missile-at-mossad-hq-near-tel-aviv

UK sends troops to Cyprus https://www.reuters.com/world/britain-urges-nationals-leave-lebanon-2024-09-24/

Bio

India confirms mpox clade Ib case https://www.aol.co.uk/news/india-confirms-first-case-dangerous-152803698.html?guccounter=1

Context

JarJarJedi NunoSempere 2d ago

I'd call bullshit on that "targeting Mossad base" thing. I seriously double they have a capability to do anything this precise with their rockets. They just fired it in the general direction of Tel-Aviv. Surely, after it exploded, they can tell any tall tales about its target, making it sound as they are punching back as hard as they are getting. But I think they are just bullshitting as usual.

Context

NunoSempere JarJarJedi 1d ago

Makes sense

Context

throwaway-7742 NunoSempere 2d ago

US troops deployed to Cyprus. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/25/politics/us-troops-cyprus/index.html

Things are gettin' spicy.

Context

NunoSempere throwaway-7742 1d ago

Things are gettin' spicy.

I know right

Context

ToZanarkand Some day the dream will end throwaway-7742 2d ago

I think that's to help with evacuation. I think there's a long way to go before there's a chance US troops will actually be deployed for combat.

Context

NunoSempere ToZanarkand 1d ago

Yes, definitely.

I also recently refreshed my mind by looking at Cyprus on a map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cyprus/@34.4816366,29.3321508,1004982m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x14de1767ca494d55:0x324c3c807fc4146e!8m2!3d35.126413!4d33.429859!16zL20vMDFwcHE?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

It's just placed very conveniently. Makes sense why Turkey would invade it.

Context

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

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