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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1439 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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I've been posting for several years at this point. Obviously my comments are not making it past the new user filter. I swear me being filtered is a more recent thing. Can downvotes push someone back into being filtered?

I recall you being no longer filtered also. As far as I know, once you're unfiltered you should not go back into the filter.

A fascinating conundrum, apparently the machine spirit of The Motte hates me specifically.

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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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