site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1197 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 27, 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.

If your hobbies work that way then that might work. I am a massive introvert, I like staying home and playing videogames or board games, not going out to meet people. And my wife is that way too. I was never going to find her by going out and being social, and if I had picked up a new social hobby to meet people I would have mostly met people who like whatever that hobby is that I would be pretending to like.

I found her on a dating website. And it was painful, because I had to go through hundreds and hundreds of stupid normies and people looking for quick hookups, or just the wrong kinds of nerds. Luckily by being a weird nerd myself I screened off most of the people who were a bad fit pretty quickly, Despite looking for like 4 years I only ever went on one real life date prior to finding my wife. But I eventually found her and now we stay at home not doing external social things together.

I don't know how well that scales in general. That's what worked for me. But also I knew I wanted to find someone and I knew what I was looking for (as close to a female copy of me as possible, basically), so I went through a bunch of effort, and a lot of waiting, to make it happen.

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