What I find more interesting is the question of how much of this type of communication is done consciously? Do the people writing for Fox News or the NYT sit down and say to themselves, "I am now going to try and trick another mind to believe what I think it should believe?" Or is it more subconscious, like, "I will now fill the reader's mind with The Truth!"?
In my experience (as a former journalist) it usually starts off with the latter and morphs into the former if you aren't vigilant (which is why it is better to just not do any of it.) It starts off with you reading some moron on social media explain things exactly backwards or in some other bizarrely stupid fashion, and so you write an article explaining how things really went down, and you use emotive language to drive home how right you are. Then your article, which is full of slams against the outgroup, gets retweeted by your colleagues and maybe a big name retweets it! Plus your boss loves it and so do all of your friends! Depending on how much you have dealt with popularity already, it can go one of two* ways - it either overwhelms you immediately and you instantly begin writing for more retweets, or you marinade in it and stick to what you were doing, and over time - as the depression endemic with being a truth teller in a post truth world blossoms and grows - subconsciously your brain recognises that you are less unhappy when you write the party line, and then you begin writing for more retweets. I'm not sure which is worse - the instant party slave has desperation behind them, but the boiled frog has had time to rationalise and justify everything she's done.
*There is a third route of course - due to broken brains and a prior surplus of popularity you don't give a shit about praise from anyone who isn't your dad, and so all the praise you get for your slam article makes you ashamed of it and yourself for writing it and you resolve to never do it again and you put way too much effort into making every article give as many facts as possible, and your commissions slowly dry up as your dry and informative articles are pushed aside by bombastic partisan bullshit. Eventually you quit and end up writing puns to annoy smart people in debate forums and working at a farmer's market, and you find you are infinitely happier than you were when every day meant grappling with a choice between sticking to your principles or being good at your job.
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.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
In my experience (as a former journalist) it usually starts off with the latter and morphs into the former if you aren't vigilant (which is why it is better to just not do any of it.) It starts off with you reading some moron on social media explain things exactly backwards or in some other bizarrely stupid fashion, and so you write an article explaining how things really went down, and you use emotive language to drive home how right you are. Then your article, which is full of slams against the outgroup, gets retweeted by your colleagues and maybe a big name retweets it! Plus your boss loves it and so do all of your friends! Depending on how much you have dealt with popularity already, it can go one of two* ways - it either overwhelms you immediately and you instantly begin writing for more retweets, or you marinade in it and stick to what you were doing, and over time - as the depression endemic with being a truth teller in a post truth world blossoms and grows - subconsciously your brain recognises that you are less unhappy when you write the party line, and then you begin writing for more retweets. I'm not sure which is worse - the instant party slave has desperation behind them, but the boiled frog has had time to rationalise and justify everything she's done.
*There is a third route of course - due to broken brains and a prior surplus of popularity you don't give a shit about praise from anyone who isn't your dad, and so all the praise you get for your slam article makes you ashamed of it and yourself for writing it and you resolve to never do it again and you put way too much effort into making every article give as many facts as possible, and your commissions slowly dry up as your dry and informative articles are pushed aside by bombastic partisan bullshit. Eventually you quit and end up writing puns to annoy smart people in debate forums and working at a farmer's market, and you find you are infinitely happier than you were when every day meant grappling with a choice between sticking to your principles or being good at your job.
...That third route sounds oddly specific, is that based on a real person?
Yeah I got to the end and realised that I never went party slave or boiled frog, so which route did I go? The route of self righteous failure.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link