Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 134
- 5
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
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I'm not saying that there isn't any sneering at progressives to. I'm saying that sneering is already the norm and the reason my comments stick out is that I'm sneering at the wrong targets, IE people rationalists typically identify with.
Amazing. Every word of what you just said is wrong.
Your comments don't "stick out" particularly. You got reported because your sneer was -- a sneer. Other people sneering at other targets (including those that rationalists "identify with" and those they don't) have also been reported, and not infrequently, modded. You have not come to our special attention, and while you do have haters who spite-report most of what you post, you are not unique in that regard, and we haven't become stupid since moving off of reddit. You didn't get reported just because you sneered at the "wrong" target.
There are no "right" or "wrong" targets here. There are people who are obviously very tribal, so they think some targets are right and some are wrong, and will report accordingly, but again - we are not stupid. You didn't get modded just because you sneered at the "wrong" target (implying that if you had sneered at the "right" target, it would have been okay).
This place isn't particularly rationalist, and really, hasn't been for a very long time. There is still overlap - maybe we are still "rationalist-adjacent" - but if this place has a "tribe," it isn't rationalists. You didn't get reported or modded because you attacked the in-group.
"Childless female Democrats" is not a group that rationalists particularly identify with, to my knowledge (I am sure there are childless female Democrats in the rationalist community, but that's not the same thing), and they are definitely not a group that the Motte identifies with. (I wouldn't be confident that we have a single childless female Democrat poster.) So you weren't reported or modded because you attacked a group that anyone here identifies with.
You were reported, presumably, because you threw out a low effort sneer. You were modded because a mod (me) looked at it and say "Yup, that's a sneer and we don't want that kind of thing."
Get off your cross. You are not a brave iconoclast challenging the groupthink here - you're becoming just another culture warrior whose enemy tribe is very slightly different from the people who hate wokes, women, and Jews.
More options
Context Copy link
But rationalists don't appear to identify with child free female democrats who complain about cultural appropriation.
Thats the (generalizing here) "woke" demographic not the rationalist one. Who are mainly male and overwhelmingly tech oriented. And at least here 1) Rationalists are probably not the majority and 2) those who post here are even more unlikely to identify with the group you targeted, and indeed more likely to target them, themselves.
So I don't think that really passes muster as an explanation. If you were posting on "normie" reddit then you might have more of a point I think.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link