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naraburns  nihil supernum  3d ago (text post)   1827 thread views

Quality Contributions Report for February 2025

This is the Quality Contributions Roundup. It showcases interesting and well-written comments and posts from the period covered. If you want to get an idea of what this community is about or how we want you to participate, look no further (except the rules maybe--those might be important too).

As a reminder, you can nominate Quality Contributions by hitting the report button and selecting the "Actually A Quality Contribution!" option. Additionally, links to all of the roundups can be found in the wiki of /r/theThread which can be found here. For a list of other great community content, see here.

These are mostly chronologically ordered, but I have in some cases tried to cluster comments by topic so if there is something you are looking for (or trying to avoid), this might be helpful.

Quality Contributions to the Main Motte

@4bpp:

@problem_redditor:

@self_made_human:

Contributions for the week of January 27, 2025

@OliveTapenade:

Contributions for the week of February 3, 2025

@recovering_rationaleist:

@vorpa-glavo:

@jeroboam:

@erwgv3g34:

@Shrike:

@Corvos:

Contributions for the week of February 10, 2025

@jeroboam:

@NelsonRushton:

@MadMonzer:

@The_Golem101:

@4bpp:

@jake:

@Tophattingson:

@Dean:

@WhateverHappenedToNorman:

@naraburns:

@Amadan:

@hooser:

@CrispyFriedBarnacles:

@Supah_Schmendrick:

@LacklustreFriend:

Contributions for the week of February 17, 2025

@Dean:

@self_made_human:

@Closedshop :

@Folamh3:

@campfire:

@Rov_Scam:

@Glassnoser:

@blooblyblobl:

Contributions for the week of February 24, 2025

@Dean:

@wemptronics:

@dev:

@WhiningCoil:

@DirtyWaterHotDog:

@FCfromSSC:

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@jeroboam (Not at'ing you, bro. Just want to give props for a good comment.)

In 1913, the federal budget was only about 2-3% of GDP. It was funded almost entirely by tariffs.

Today, the federal budget is about 25% of GDP, funded mostly by taxes of individuals.

I missed this comment the first time 'round, and it's a great reminder of the scale of things. I'd like to add another observation. 75% of that current spending is the big entitlements (SS,Medicare,Health,Income Security) and interest on the debt, all things that were adopted post-WWI, which explains the lion's share of what is now a completely different beast of a federal government. If you killed everything other than current defense spending, you're still at 3.5% of GDP. This beast is not something that you can trim around the edges, maybe find some fraud or waste here and there, maybe fire a few bureaucrats, and call it a day. It's something completely different. It's not even about the government actively doing stuff for the most part. For the most part, it's just taking your money, putting it under some shells, mixing it around (sneaking a little out the back for the host), and giving it back to either you or other people who they prefer.

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!


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