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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   2786 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 15, 2025

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?

Working on my annual re-read of Battle Cry of Freedom and staring the Stormlight Archive.

Making my way through "Suicide of the West" ,a 1962 book by James Burnham. It's a book about liberalism, or more specifically 'liberal syndrome' - Burnham doesn't think liberalism is coherent enough to be called an ideology.

The book aged very well, perhaps the only exception is that back then liberals were typically for freedom of speech for communists -Burnham was basically cancelled for supporting McCarthy, presumably because as a CIA connected guy he knew more than the average left-winger.

Now it's generally true that they're usually soft on islamists.

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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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