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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   22176 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 24, 2025

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You know we may be onto something here.
Quoth the digital oracle:

A Proclamation on the Invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua — Seuss-Style

By the President of the United States

I do not like gangsters here or there.
I do not like them anywhere!
I do not like TdA’s sly tricks,
With drugs and smuggles, crime that sticks.

This group from Venezuela, TdA by name,
Was once in prison, now spreads to claim
A foothold in our cities, block by block —
Crime, trafficking, terror: a ticking clock.

They sneak through borders, flood our lands,
With secret hands and shifting sands.
They traffic humans, drugs, and fear,
Their actions make danger draw near.

So I proclaim, with urgent tone,
That TdA’s presence here we’ll disown.
Their assets blocked, their funds all freeze,
Their leaders named — we’ll do as we please.

All persons tied to TdA’s vile plot —
If non-citizen or legal-status not —
Must be removed, detained, deported fast,
No hiding-place for criminals, no past.

Let no U.S. asset benefit a gang so grim,
No banking flow, no hidden limb.
We block their money, break their chain,
We strike at crime, we guard our plain.

This we order, in peace and right,
To guard our homeland day and night.
For safety, order, lawful land —
We draw a hard and final stand.

Given under my hand this day,
In defense of people — come what may.

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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."

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