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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   27293 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 28, 2025

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Rumor has it that a Pakistani finance-bro finally broke under the strain of counting all his money, and ran amok. Last I heard, he'd racked up so many confirmed kills of the local white underclass that it was almost too burdensome to count, and now, was in a tense stand-off with police snipers while his own asylum application processed.

Very good

I'm almost tempted to unblock Count so he can get back to me on that.

Well maybe when he gets back from his ban...

I got a good chuckle out of that one, too.

I think it was a couple BC bans ago that got me thinking about alternatives to the tempban. I thought, “when he does one inflammatory post, it’s interesting. It’s when he follows up that people start to insist he’s a troll.” How could we get the compelling conversation starters from some of our most divisive posters while making it clear that their behavior was still against the rules?

Once your 60- or 90-day tempban expires, you can post or comment again whenever you like. But it starts a timer leading to an automatic follow-up tempban. We like hearing from you, but you don’t get to stay.

Since it was BurdensomeCount, I thought about calling it the Motte Travel Visa. Or maybe it would be less controversial to call it resurrection and ascension?

Agree. I also like the idea of general posting cap, let Hlynka have 5 posts a month for example.

I'm registering my support for a 'smoke the whole pack' rule- a rule that particularly inflammatory posts by users who make a habit of it are required to respond in depth to every argument, no matter how banal or trite.

If you are going to make a rule requiring impossible things from users, just ban them directly. Don't force them to follow an impossible rule just so you can say it's their own fault for being banned for not following it.

(And if it isn't impossible, it will become so as soon as users game it by replying with Gish gallops.)

Can I make a suggestion as someone who is likely to get a travel visa?

I've grown to understand that I'm going to get muzzled in the culture war thread. Just how it's gonna be. But I'd appreciate still being able to participate in the other threads, I do enjoy the community of them.

To be clear, there are no plans to adopt something like this.

But you also make a good point. I’m amenable to the idea of some bans just being for the CW thread. I wonder if that’s feasible.

Would mod notes allow this, wouldn't otherwise need anything technical?

"Informed user they were on thin ice and needed to stay out of the culture war thread until 9/1, if caught posting in CW thread give a 6 month ban."

Person would need to remember not to post, but if they do and it leads to mod action....off with their head. If they forget and post in the CW thread and nobody notices, well not the end of the world anyway.

I felt like this was an allusion to something I didn't understand.

Shots fired at BurdensomeCount?

My assumption

Mr. BurdensomeCount, who is currently banned. Famous for his loathing of the British underclass and well-padded opinion of himself.

My assumption. Bad form to hit at someone not present to defend himself.

My model of Count says he finds this about as funny as I do. If I were less shameless, I'd probably have asked if he could spare 10 minutes (£30 at his hourly rate) to say hi while I was in the area.

The first he will gladly tell you about at length and the second is not something he cares to hide.

Indeed. I suppose I'm just averse to talking behind backs, as it were. A lesson learned the hard way, along with "do what you say you're going to do." (Which is irrelevant here but a lesson I learned nonetheless.)

It's not something I make a habit of. I felt the information was broadly public knowledge.

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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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