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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   377 thread views

Transnational Thursday for June 18, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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I have never heard about any serious application of this rule, at least recently. Maybe it did happen, but if so, it was of little consequence. I can't remember any RF broadcast outlet that would have been on any consequence in the last decades on the political scene, except for NPR, which as always been left-biased without any consequences as far as I remember. So practically this rule seems to be effectively non-existent.

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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."

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