site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1129 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 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.

The high school I graduated from was in the state top ten for per capita overdoses, vehicle deaths, suicides, and teen pregnancies.

Gotta say, even the existence of such statistics (ie. there being more than one per decade) already sounds bizarre to me. Cultural differences and all that.

I graduated from college. It's not much, but it's a win for me.

I say that definitely counts as a win.

had six weeks of unexcused absences my senior year

Ours was a very progressive high school as far as student freedom and responsibility went. You could be absent from up to 20% of classes from one course without requiring a reason and 30% if you had a doctor's note or similar. I had some "slight" motivation problems in my last year so I ended up skipping 50% of the math classes in the last period and the teacher didn't even notice (I missed something like 15 classes, he thought I missed 5). I outright arranged my schedule for that last period such that I only went to school three days a week. Good times.

Gotta say, even the existence of such statistics (ie. there being more than one per decade) already sounds bizarre to me. Cultural differences and all that.

How big are your high schools? It varies a lot across the US, but OP might be describing a school with over a thousand students per grade level, and you might be able to get meaningful statistics over a few years.

Location also matters. Rural schools usually have a much higher fatality rate than urban schools (some data here), typically due to a combination of dangerous farm work, dangerous driving habits, more miles driven, and more dangerous hobbies.

My own experience may be illustrative. I went to a rural high school of about 400 students. My freshman year was the first in 25 years not to see a single student death, though there were four more deaths my sophomore through senior years. In contrast, the large city schools near me (student population ~3,000–4,000) usually only have one or two deaths per decade.

Does Finland have a system where high school is different than the US definition? That sounds almost like my first year of college

It's the "same" but from what I've gathered of US high schools, also quite different. First, there are entry requirements (based on 9th year grades). Second, they changed it to course form just before I started in the mid 90s, so you got to pick and choose which courses to take and when. There's a bunch of mandatory courses and then the rest are optional within limits (eg. I took max amount of math and physics and only the minimum required history, biology and such). The entry requirements did wonders because while my high school wasn't anything particularly "elite" back then (it would acquire such reputation some years later), only people who actually wanted to study went there. The curriculum was and is still normal high school (which in practise means somewhat higher level than US but similar to the rest of EU).

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