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PaperclipPerfector  16hr ago (text post)   493 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 3, 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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"Am I German or Autistic?"

http://german.millermanschool.com/

(I am neither German nor autistic, but it's good to confirm, through a psychometrically validated instrument that I'm a regular dude. Uh, I don't remember my results but I think it was 38% German and like 10% autistic?)

Your patterns are cultural, not neurological. You have internalized a set of values — precision, order, directness, the moral weight of punctuality — that the German philosophical tradition worked out with unusual care.

Kant's categorical imperative is basically this: act only according to principles you would want universalized. You live by this, probably without having read Kant, because you have absorbed it through some combination of upbringing, temperament, and the fact that it is simply correct.

You are difficult to work with in the ways all serious people are difficult to work with. This is not a diagnosis. It is a compliment.

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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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