It may all make sense in context when you read about Arab militaries (western trainers sometimes have to be physically restrained when Arab soldiers hoard knowledge so they're more important instead of passing it on), or the effects of inbreeding on population intelligence.
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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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Notes -
It may all make sense in context when you read about Arab militaries (western trainers sometimes have to be physically restrained when Arab soldiers hoard knowledge so they're more important instead of passing it on), or the effects of inbreeding on population intelligence.
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