site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1603 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 25, 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.

Protip: If you ever find yourself out of medication and the pharmacy says they are out of stock of your prescription, tell them that you are about to call your insurance company to inform them that their in-network pharmacy is unable to provide nessesary medical care to patients. Suddenly, "it's 3-4 days out," and, "this is just our procedure," becomes, "I'll check the stockroom," and "we'll have that ready for you sir," in about 2 minutes. Dangerous professional voice is a superpower. Obviously you must only use this power for good.

Dangerous professional voice is a superpower.

Can you elaborate? Is this simply bombarding bureaucratic drones with requests for specific documentation so you can create a paper trail for yourself on their inability to process something up the chain?

"Dangerous professional" is a term popularized by Patrick Mackenzie (@patio11 on X): https://x.com/patio11/status/1162561822248992768 about a particular mode of communication (usually written, because Dangerous Professionals make paper trails, but sometimes verbal):

Memetically, being a Dangerous Professional means communicating in what might be a slightly adversarial context in a way which suggests that a bureaucracy take one’s concerns seriously and escalate them to someone empowered to resolve them swiftly.

The idea is to convey that one is not going to bluster at relatively powerless individual bureaucrats, but to credibly demonstrate that one is willing and able to keep good paper trails (e.g., keeps a log of how the issue evolves and uses tools like certified mail to corroborate the paper trail) and is familiar with bureaucratic norms and procedures (e.g.: "counting to 30 days and calmly escalating to a Regulator or Ombudsman" on day 31). Such a person will reliably cause problems for the institution as a whole if it doesn't get its act together.

X link goes to post #1 of a thread, https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/#form-letters-and-the-inadvisability-thereof also has a good section on this.

Besides paper trails, the other key is knowing where to apply pressure. Pharmacies don't care about patient reviews. Every pharmacy is below 3-stars on Google. You have nothing to threaten them with from being pissed. The entity the pharmacy can't afford to piss off is the insurance company, and insurance companies have a legal obligation to provide medical care to policy holders. If their in-network providers are unable to provide medical care to patients, that's the insurance company's problem, and in turn they will quickly make it the pharmacy's problem.

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