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bolido_sentimental  1yr ago (text post)   3671 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Matrix > Discord

I'm a lot less tech-savvy than this site's admins, and even I have been able to set up an instance (using DigitalOcean's """one-click""" offering, which costs 6 $/mo).

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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."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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