site banner
PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   1925 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 30, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I'm going to go against the grain and say I don't think it's a faux pas at all. I don't give a shit if someone wears cleats off the field, and to be honest I would think less of anyone who does.

Ok let's do a quiz. In which of the following scenarios would you either judge someone as having committed a faux pas, or wouldn't immediately think less of someone who did judge:

  1. Man wearing hat inside someone else's house (ok cap, it doesn't have to be a bowler or whatever)

  2. Girl applying make-up on a public train full of people.

  3. Hawking a big throaty loogie and setting it free via a big spit off the train platform while waiting for the train.

  4. wearing white socks with a dark suit

  5. woman going bra-less at her friend's wedding

  6. walking barefoot in a mall (in a landlocked town)

  7. bikini top in a restaurant (enclosed)

  8. striped necktie with plaid shirt

  9. speaking while chewing food

  10. laughing after your partner's orgasm

These are in no order. Your answers will be entered into your permanent record.

Great question! I try not to judge people for less than a pattern of bad behaviour (try being the operative word) so on principle I agree with @Tree, but as far as personal preference goes I'd say:

  1. Get that thing off your head dickbag, how is everyone else supposed to know I have the best hair if they can't see your hair?

  2. I actually like this.

  3. I do not care for any kind of spitting and will struggle to maintain my values in the face of it.

  4. No judgement, and I am incredibly unlikely to even notice.

  5. No judgement, unlikely to notice.

  6. Don't visit Australia if this bothers you. It's not just a beach thing either. That said if you plan on walking on my living room carpet at any point before your next shower you will wear shoes or else.

  7. I don't know if I would judge her negatively, it depends on the situation (and her looks of course, attractive people get away with more), but I would definitely consider it a faux pas.

  8. No judgement, once again unlikely to notice. If someone pointed it out to me I'd probably consider it a mistake.

  9. Close your mouth you grot.

  10. Either great or the worst thing that could possibly have happened. It depends on how confident you are in yourself and the relationship. I've had it enhance the relationship and ruin my life (for a few days).

Fake edit: I saw your comment about 10 down below and it reminds me of one time it happened to me. I dated a girl who was a gamer and one weekend we were in her lounge room chatting. We got to the topic of sex, and she insisted she could make any video game sexy, so I challenged her to make Tetris sexy. So she did a giggling striptease while doo-dooing the Tetris music, which was hilariously dorky but still surprisingly sexy. Events proceeded and we were just about to start the main event when she froze and said "Is that the front door?" I looked up in alarm to see her cat bolt into the lounge room, right at me, and I flinched, thrusting forward and immediately losing it while making a noise halfway between fright and elation - a sort of "Huweeeee!" We were both in fits of laughter as we scrambled for her bedroom just before the rest of the household got through the door.

That's talking about a woman laughing at me of course - I would never laugh at a woman after she orgasmed. I assume.

Good story. Mine:

Okinawan girl. Twenty maybe 21. Probably 20. I was around 34 (Sue me, cancel me, etc.) She was gorgeous, funny, got my humor or at least laughed convincingly, and had a really nice, um, well, body. Like she could have been on the beer posters holding up a frosty glass wearing a bikini, that type. Really proficient at English. This would've been my 3rd or so year in Japan. The image of her returning from the washroom standing in my bedroom doorway in a state of complete undress is burned pleasantly into my memory. If my memories eventually all fall away, I hope that's one of the last ones. But let's not get tawdry. Anyway eventually there we were, an hour or two later, and as I reached that sublime moment I looked up and there she was poised over me laughing. "I've seen your happy face," she said. I felt as if this were an admission of larceny.

I saw her again a few more times until I didn't. She had a guy in the US military back home (whenever he was in port I guess). I always completely ignored any declaration of boyfriend back in the day as simple noise from mouth and utterly irrelevant (unless I knew him of course). But it complicated matters. Point being I never did know how to process that moment. It seemed, I don't know, disrespectful somehow. I will admit I no longer hold women to the standard I once may have (specifically: Well I'd never do that to you type reactiveness) but it was weird.

Edit: Linked image is obviously dated, but roughly from the same era.

Lol God damn yeah I imagine I'd feel pretty perplexed in that situation too. Plus it's harder to laugh at yourself when you are one hour in than when you are one second in.

(1) Slightly negative (weird, but not off-putting) (Insert Tim Pool joke here.)

(2) Neutral

(3) Negative (off-putting)

(4) Neutral

(5) Negative (Can't women wear "pasties" so that their nipples don't show through their shirts? If so, failing to wear pasties, so that people can tell you aren't wearing a brassiere, can be interpreted as intentionally being obnoxious. But I'm far from an expert on this topic.)

(6) Negative (is this person insane?)

(7) Negative (very weird)

(8) Neutral

(9) Negative (off-putting)

(10) I'm not qualified to opine on this topic.

The correct liberal answer is that none of those rise to the level of an acknowledgeable offense. Politeness and stoicism requires they be ignored and left uncommented. And I actually like you more if you do 5,6,7 or 10.

(dossier updated)

Definitely not 1; if I’m wearing a hat, it’s almost certainly because my hair looks like shit. The real faux pas would be letting everyone see my bad hair day. 2 is totally fine by me as well.

I’m torn about 3, because on the one hand I recognize that this one will probably be the most popular answer, but on the other hand I sometimes have a pretty bad post-nasal drip; I always endeavor to spit somewhere where people won’t see/hear it and get grossed out, but occasionally that’s unrealistic. Spitting is definitely my most slovenly behavior.

Neither 4 nor 8 is a faux pas as far as I’m concerned, because neither is going to actually make anybody uncomfortable. They just look bad visually, and if someone is trying to look good — which, if he’s wearing a suit or a tie in the first place, he obviously is — he should avoid doing things that detract from that goal.

5, 6, and 7 are obvious [insert whatever is the correct plural of faux pas] to me. 9 is a spectrum, where it depends on what kind of food you’re chewing, how adroit you are at manipulating it in your mouth such that it’s not visible to your interlocutor and doesn’t significantly impact your diction, etc. If it’s a faux pas it’s generally a minor one.

With 10, I would need more context to judge. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t gotten laid in a while and my instincts about the finer points of the etiquette have atrophied.

only if it's not a "fashion" hat (so yes for a beanie), yes, yes, no, depends on dress code, yes, yes, no, no, no

Interesting, I would expect 10 to have yesses all around. Perhaps I should find more humor in coitus.

I would say #3, 6, 7, 9, and 10. 5 is a maybe depending on if it isn't really apparent versus "wow I can see everything even with her clothes on". Of the ones I mentioned, #3, 7, 9 and 10 are things that would bother me personally, while #6 is one that doesn't bother me but I don't find it overly judgemental if someone else doesn't think it's cool.

I didn't know I had a permanent record, lol.

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