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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2312 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 22, 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.

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I understand a few people on this site really abhorred RF Kuang's 2023 novel Yellowface. Freddie deBoer has a tremendously bitchy article today taking Kuang to task for her perceived false modesty in her New Yorker profile, which doubles as a very harsh review of Yellowface itself. It's transparently written from a place of envy and spite, deBoer barely pretending to mask how much he covets Kuang her literary success in comparison to his own meagre book sales, but entertaining for all that, and I'm sure that any of you who disliked Yellowface will find much to agree with in his critique.

(Without having read Yellowface I can't comment on its literary merits or lack thereof — but its author is pretty cute and I would.)

I think your link is wrong - it points to the Motte.

Thanks, fixed.

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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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