site banner
Soriek  11mo ago (text post)   1872 thread views

Transnational Thursdays XXX

This is the thirtieth weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

12
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Egypt

Speaking of fake elections, Egypt just held elections on Monday and Tuesday. We should know the results on the 18th, which will with overwhelming likelihood produce a victory for El-Sisi. Are people happy with his rule? At least from a bird’s eye view, things on the ground seem pretty rough:

Beyond Egypt’s frontiers, its neighbours are locked in seemingly intractable conflicts, with civil war raging in Sudan, and in Libya, rival governments vie for power on Cairo’s doorstep.

In 2022, public debt in Egypt stood at above 88 percent of the country’s GDP, more than double the region’s average. Inflation has consistently been above 35 percent since June.

Across the country, as household finances shrink, record numbers of Egyptians are reportedly searching for a second job while cutting back on household spending, including less and cheaper food. However, many analysts expect el-Sisi to win the upcoming election.

However, the whole kerfuffle to the west has definitely complicated things a bit. Egyptians are by and large extremely opposed to Israel and strongly dislike that their leaders won’t take a stronger stance:

"Before the 7th of October of this year (Hamas’ attack on Israel) the main issue was really economic: people were not happy with inflation, rising prices, the rising foreign debt, which is over $166 billion. Then, the 7th of October occurred and this idea that [Israel] will transfer Palestinians into the Sinai, so the issue of national security began to overtake [that of] the economy."

Most of this doesn’t matter all that much for the outcome of the election though. Sisi took power in a coup, held one rigged election since then, and called for this one randomly as well after banning numerous independent voices and orgs criticizing his administration and intimidating his main opposition, the leftist Ahmed el-Tantawy, into dropping out of the race. And thus:

El-Sissi faces no serious challenger, although there are three other candidates: Farid Zahran, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, chairman of the Wafd Party; and Hazem Omar, head of the Republican People’s Party.

For now Sisi is here to say, for better or for worse.

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


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats