site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2381 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

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.

No. No, no no. Don't excuse the Keurig use by @Muninn. It's a machine that exemplifies everything wrong about late-stage capitalism and the infantile American palate.

Just talking through it should be enough. Here's the "pitch": we're going to take a tiny, 9-gram dose of coffee and grind it to immediately start the process of decay. We're going to entomb it in a 3-gram amalgamation of aluminum and plastic - just enough to make sure nothing can be recycled, and packed full of air so idiotic consumers don't realize how much we're ripping them off.

We'll design machines with the lowest-grade plastic available, full of shiny surfaces that attract fingerprints. Each one a crime of industrial design: Debossed KEURIG front-and-center, pathetic blacks and greys, chunky cup holders that eat up so much vertical space that no meaningful drip dray can exist, and side-saddle water reservoirs to even destroy the tiny mercy of symmetry. No water filtration necessary! The algae growing in the poorly maintained office example should make it into every cup. While we're at it, let's spread that coffee dose around 3 different water sizes, spitting in the face of ratios, and make sure we only have one brewing temperature (Nuclear Hot) as insurance against someone tasting the slop we're pouring out. A scalded taste bud can be abused with impunity.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The coffee's bad enough, but there's a whole secondary ecosystem of "hot chocolate" and "apple cider" HFCS delivery systems that the underclass loves to puncture with those plastic needles, just to hasten the day they need to do the same with insulin.

I respect spooning instant coffee into the bottom of a mug 10,000x more than the animal self-cruelty of using the worst fast-coffee system ever devised.

You're absolutely right, of course, my choices have been inexcusable. I denounce myself!

Now I feel self-conscious, so I invite you to judge my own coffee-making procedure, which is roughly:

  • put coffee beans into blade grinder
  • grind
  • put grounds into French press
  • put 95 degree hot water into press
  • wait for a few minutes
  • depress press, pour coffee into mug
  • pour milk in straight from the bottle
  • drink

How much of a barbarian am I?

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