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PaperclipPerfector  7hr ago (text post)   255 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 20, 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.

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I genuinely wonder if you've ever been mistaken for an LLM.

I don't make enough comments anywhere to be targeted with such accusations.

Look at the Markdown tables

Note that, unlike Reddit's, this website's Markdown implementation requires the user to type tables in raw HTML, not in Markdown.

I'd kill to see your Factorio builds.

Very annoyingly, I remain too depressed to invest hours of consecutive effort into a campaign of Factorio. In contrast, Opus Magnum can be played in bite-sized chunks.

I am sorry to hear that you're depressed. I'm in the same boat, last time I felt entirely fine was after I enrolled in a study on psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. It was like the sun had come out again, and it lasted for months. I miss it desperately. And yes, being depressed is probably the main reason I don't play video games as much as I used to.

As for Factorio? It's one of those games that appeals to me greatly, in theory, but I would need to use my prescription stimulants to be able to play it. If I need medication to enjoy a game, that is annoyingly close to work. Shame, I love the idea.

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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!

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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.


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