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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2867 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 1, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

Still on The Conquest of Bread. Picking up Toffler’s Future Shock.

Finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956). Cyberpunk avant la lettre - if you can have cyberpunk without computer networks. Very 50s and very pulpy - it's no surprise that Bester also wrote comics - but well written with a manic energy that's the polar opposite of the likes of Asimov. You can just imagine the author smashing the typewriter keys while chomping a cigar. Reaches for the stars and sometimes grasps them.

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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."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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