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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   836 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 24, 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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Are there new restrictions in place preventing ai from fetching threads? I was enjoying having ai summarize interesting threads and sub threads for me, but now it can no longer fetch the culture war threads

Wait... was it ALL YOUR FAULT?!?!!

Hey, if getting a robot to do all my thinking for me is wrong, I'll need to consult my robot to see how to be right.

Seriously, though, I only did it like 5 times over a month.

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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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