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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2955 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 21, 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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Small question: Is imgur considered good enough for embedding links to images in posts, or are there better alternatives? The forum's image upload appears unsuitable for the task.

Not a question: Comments+View count for all of TheMotte.org's 158 Culture War threads to date.*

*Reliability not guaranteed.

Thank you, interesting. The decline hasn’t been as significant as I’d imagined.

Not just that, the trend seems to be upward since early 2024.

FWIW, I think I arrived here circa early 2024 (maybe a little before). What attracted me and kept me are discussions on culture war topics that went everywhere they needed to do but didn’t descend into farce, acrimony, vilification and hatred.

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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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