site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1732 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 12, 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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I think there's a free niche, in our AI world. Strike it while it's hot deal, IMO. There's only one way humans online can keep talking to each other without the doubt that it's really another person you are talking to and not AI: paying for posting. And also having anti-AI policy. I don't think it's going to be easy to create something like this, we would need a Bluesky style mass-exodus to that platform and we are all so used to posting for free that the idea will be met with natural revulsion, but IMO it's the only way to continue talking to real people.

Or maybe such a platform already exists: Something Awful still validates people like that. I'd love it to be not ideologically captured like SA. Maybe framing it as a monthly subscription would be acceptable.

I think the dead internet is going to become true very soon, it already is to an extent. It must get much worse before people will really resort to paid posting.

Private group chats already solve this, and they're quite popular. As is leaking their contents to the media.

If you mean public platforms, you can just make the discussion public but membership private (ie, invite-only). For any violators, you have a nice provenance tree that you can snip wherever the admin deems necessary.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats