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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   814 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 7, 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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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on The Dawn of Everything. Finally getting around to Bax' The Fraud of Feminism, which has been on my list for a while.

Sovietistan. Norwegian journalist visits ex-Soviet Central Asia. A little annoying in some ways (she's a pushy liberal that's shocked by people not giving a fuck about democracy), but it's been really cool to learn about a part of the world that I didn't know anything about before.

Huh, might pick this up as a stocking-stuffer.

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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."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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