site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1617 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 6, 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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Anyone follow American Football 🏈?

I don't follow but I usually watch the Superbowl, and I'm interested in knowing the season backstory for both teams. Anyone want to rant about them, or just tell me they are both boring?

Patriots were the most successful / most hated team for the better part of the millennium until their HOF QB and coach that got them there both left and they started to suck. Everyone had gotten tired of them being good for so long, and so kind of hoped they would stay bad for awhile, but now they are annoyingly good again with a new star QB and coach and back in the SB (with a few lucky breaks along the way; they had the easiest schedule in the league this year and their biggest competition in the conference lost their starting QB the playoff game before they played, so people will say they had sort of a cake walk to the title game). People will probably be rooting against them for this reason.

The Seahawks have been a consistently solid team over the same time period, having a brief dominant run about a decade and a half ago. They now have a new coach who has kind of made a name for himself as a defensive whiz kid and taken the league by storm, similar to how Sean McVay did a few years ago on the offensive side with the Rams. McVay lost his first Super Bowl to the old Patriots dynasty, so now we'll see if "defensive McVay" will lose to the Patriots in his first appearance as well.

Everyone had gotten tired of them being good for so long...

That's what Patriots fans will tell you at any rate. The truth is more that they were perceived as unsportsmanlike and arrogant (which people don't like), and they were known to have cheated (which people like even less). It's not so much about them being good, as the character (or lack thereof) they had during that time. Now that Belichick and Brady are gone, I don't really think people care very much.

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