site banner
PaperclipPerfector  26d ago (text post)   1319 thread views

Transnational Thursday for October 17, 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.

4
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

It looks like there has been an assassination attempt against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A large Hezbollah drone struck one of Netanyahu’s homes in the Galilee region. Netanyahu was not home at the time, and no one was injured. It seems like there was fairly high level authorization for this attack from Iran. There are murmurings from the Israeli government that this attack merits retaliation against high level figures in the Iranian government.

I see nothing wrong with directly targeting your opponent's leader, rather than having to kill all the plebs in between first. Israel especially cannot complain, given their policiy and tactics. If I were Netanyahu, my response (after the initial nerves and shock) would be along the lines of "Fair play, but you're not good enough."

Normally I would agree. In this situation though I think it’s irresponsible for either of them to be doing that since it’s a nuclear power and an imminent nuclear power. That’s how you get millions of people killed over personal defense interests of the leadership.

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