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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   2668 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 19, 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.

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I suppose I know what it's like to be a woman, but not what it's like to have important friendships online that didn't start in person. Considering online relationships to be ephemeral and in some sense unreal seems to be fairly common, even on dating apps where the express purpose is to find someone to eventually form a RL relationship with, as annoying as that must be for the (usually men) getting ghosted. If someone on The Motte tried inviting me to their house, I'm not sure that I wouldn't simply never use this user name again. But DSL has in-person meetups (that I've never considered attending), so not sure.

Is that a dare? Sounds like a dare.

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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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