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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4614 thread views

Quality Contributions Report for July 2023

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. Also, @Soriek's "Transnational Thursdays" have continued to garner AAQC reports:

Here are the rest:

Quality Contributions in the Main Motte

@FarNearEverywhere:

@George_E_Hale:

@RandomRanger:

Contributions for the week of July 3, 2023

@DoktorGlas:

@Primaprimaprima:

@self_made_human:

Contributions for the week of July 10, 2023

@huadpe:

@screye:

Race and Ethnicity

@TracingWoodgrains:

@Soriek:

@naraburns:

@DaseindustriesLtd:

@Lewyn:

@solowingpixy:

Sex and Gender

@Folamh3:

@RenOS:

@raggedy_anthem:

@MaiqTheTrue:

Religion and Irreligion

@To_Mandalay:

Contributions for the week of July 17, 2023

@FCfromSSC:

@IGI-111:

@naraburns:

@fauji:

Contributions for the week of July 24, 2023

@gattsuru:

@raggedy_anthem:

@Soriek:

@InfoTeddy:

@TheDag:

@coffee_enjoyer:

@problem_redditor:

Contributions for the week of July 31, 2023

@ZorbaTHut:

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Mm, fair enough. There’s still a part of me that balks at phrasing like “practising homosexuality is a lifestyle with health consequences,” in that it seems to consider “practising homosexuality” as a single thing that can be considered risky in itself instead of looking into the underlying causative relationships. But this may be influenced by the disgust with which the word “lifestyle” is sometimes deployed in this specific context, rather than any analogy with other contexts. “Having a full time job that requires you to sit down all day is a lifestyle with health consequences” would probably not stand out to me in the same way, even though this, too, is a causative chain that can be somewhat interrupted by, for example, taking breaks in which you are mobile.

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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.


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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."

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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.

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