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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   27776 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023

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There's a sort of sliding scale among the SSC diaspora; DSL is way more to the right of this place; this place is fairly right-tolerant; ACX is in the middle trending centre-left, SSC remnant is more liberal/lefty, and TheSchism is for the liberals/lefties as a safe space for those who felt harassed off here/constantly being dog-piled.

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Is DSL really way more to the right of this place? That wasn't my impression

What is DSL in this context?

http://datasecretslox.com, a forum with various old ssc comments posters

On some things it's definitely more conservative (I think there are a lot of economic conservatives and political conservatives both there and on here, but that's not necessarily the same thing as socially conservative).

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!

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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."

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