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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1756 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 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.

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COVID was actually very bad

In which regard? I strongly suspect I agree with you here; this statement is too ambiguous without clarification to be able to truly tell.

  1. Medicine is obviously politically compromised when it comes to culture war topics.

Agreed.

The correct response to 2 is to [...] not ignore general and uncontroversial medical advice.

Agreed. Now define uncontroversial.

A reasonable middle ground is to do things like actual independent high quality research

If only it was legal to do so.

ask someone who is not politically compromised (me! me!).

P(politically compromised | states is not politically compromised) > P(politically compromised | does not state is not politically compromised)

Just because someone was wrong one time or on one category of things doesn't mean you stop listening to them for everything.

It does mean I trust everything they say less, yes.

The solution to "our experts can't be trusted when the topic is political" is not to always ignore experts, that's going to result in more incorrect decision than listening to experts even when they are wrong.

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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!

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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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