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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   818 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 30, 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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Obligatory self-promo: https://firsttoilthenthegrave.substack.com/p/contra-deboer-on-transgender-issues

I recommend binging everything @zackmdavis posted on his old site.

Gender:Hacked by Sarah Mittermaier formerly/also known as Eliza Mondegreen.

A review of Shannon Thrace's memoir 18 Months, her account of how her marriage collapsed after her ex-husband came out as trans.

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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."

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