site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2853 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

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.

Surely the great leap forward and the cultural revolution must be at the top of that list, or are you absolving the party of responsibility and pinning all that on Mao?

Or do you mean current things? Tienanmen square was 35+ years ago and most of the people responsible are dead.

I think I did mean something more current? Something you can use to criticize the current government. The undercurrents that caused Tiananmen Square are surely still there. The undercurrents that caused the Great Leap Forward seem to be mostly gone, since China embraced capitalism after some decades of struggling with the whole socialism thing.

The current government still hasn't condemned the GLF and the CR so you can use this fact to criticize them and compare it with how the US celebrates the dismantlement of Jim Crow legislation.

You can also criticize the social credit system, which has a massive chilling effect on the freedom of expression.

The Chinese social credit system is hugely overrated in intensity. You don't really lose Social Credit quantitatively if you're late to dinner like Noah Smith seems to have thought: https://x.com/pretentiouswhat/status/1780129054240510461

Most of the obtrusive stuff the Chinese state does is just the same old heavy-handed policing but with modern surveillance technology. If they don't like you the police will bring you in to 'drink tea' with them and mess with you. If you dissent on the internet they can get rid of your content the old fashioned way, with human/machine censors. East Germany didn't need social credit to be totalitarian and neither does China. The strongest anti-Chinese arguments shouldn't be social-credit related.

The current government still hasn't condemned the GLF and the CR so you can use this fact to criticize them and compare it with how the US celebrates the dismantlement of Jim Crow legislation.

Doesn't apply to CR, according to this:

2 The resolution describes the Cultural Revolution as “a catastrophe” and “10 years of turmoil” and holds Mao responsible for it. The resolution also reiterates the Party’s long-held position that the 1989 Tiananmen event was a “political turmoil” caused by both external and domestic forces. “Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe and Mao was responsible, China’s Communist Party upholds in landmark statement”,

Thank you for this clarification.

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