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PaperclipPerfector  12hr ago (text post)   362 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 3, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm getting interested in Ellul. Also about halfway through The Handmaid's Tale. Can't say it has really moved me yet one way or the other, but it seems to be moving towards something. It vaguely occurs to me that some of the undertone of resentment might be intended for readers like myself, but I can't quite figure out what precisely it is angry about yet. Hopefully it will be something that I can use.

Finished Gideon the Ninth. Such a fun book.

Made a trip to half-price books for an excellent haul. Various Vlad Taltos novels, the first five Amber Chronicles, the next Aubrey/Maturin, and. Uh. Gulag Archipelago. There’s got to be something good in that pile!

Just started the Mage Errant series and I've blasted through three books. It's a light, fun read, though a bit too redditor for me to truly love it.

though a bit too redditor for me to truly love it.

That gets worse. There's a point where the very redditor author seems to realize the, let's say, meta-social implications of his worldbuilding and has an on-page freak-out about it.

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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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