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ymeskhout  2yr ago (text post)   5463 thread views

What is your favorite Motte post ever?

I'm curious about not just what your favorite post is, but also what you think is the GOAT, or perhaps what you think is most illustrative and representative of this space (e.g. what would you show someone to get them intrigued). Please limit your post to only ONE pick and briefly explain why you chose it. This can be from anywhere within the Motte's history thus far, and r/TheThread is a good place to check in case you're having trouble finding something. Asking for a friend.

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That's neither a surprising nor an unreasonable position, but I think people seriously underestimate the value of long-term perspective in the culture war. A lot of insights are inaccessible if you can't follow the conversation long-term. As for years, just pick a significant political event, and find the thread from the corresponding weeks. The Kavanaugh confirmation, Covington, the Smollett accusation, and Floyd are the ones that spring to mind for me, but for pretty much any significant political event of the past several years, the corresponding threads are going to have some of the best analysis you can find on the subject.

Good point but I think the moderators, god bless 'em, are attached to this roundup style that is horrible for archives and frankly a vestigial leftover from its former attachment with Starslatecodex.

Sometimes I think that the Motte is among other things, a living testament to Scott Alexander's (prudent) cowardice.

But you are right about time and perspective. But even if I wanted to look for Kavanaugh commentary that's somewhere between 8-10 possible threads I have to wade into until I find what im looking for.

Iirc, there was a Kav megathread or two.

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