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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2511 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 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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Funny bit from Alexander Wales on Tumblr last week:

I do think it would be funny, just once, to have a Freaky Friday movie that was completely derailed by the existence of the supernatural. Like yeah, we're in each other's bodies, that's freaky, but this fundamentally changes our relationship to the world and all other concerns become secondary to finding out what happened, how, and what this means for humanity as a whole.

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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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