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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   790 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 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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What are you all listening to these days?

Orville Peck has a new album and the newest single dropped this morning. I love how rich the instrumentals are. It almost reminds me of old Motown or Stax recordings.

Mostly The Strokes new album Reality Awaits. I'm ready to concede that this might be their best album, despite having none of their best songs overall.

When the album launched, I was all prepared to post on the motte about its launch and reference their previous album, The New Abnormal. This is because I distinctly recall a post on the Motte about that album, and how good some of the new tracks were shortly before it's release.

Not trusting any kind of search, I went to the main page and sorted by 'Old', thinking that the launch of the Motte must have been pretty close. And I was right. Only about a year separated the 2, just in the wrong direction. Turns out the Motte was launched well past The New Abnormal, despite, as mentioned, my clear recollection of talking about it here.

Perhaps The Motte and /r/themotte simply blurred into one in my mind? I'm not really sure, seeing as a reddit search also didn't turn up the posts I so clearly remembered. In any case I was all prepared to turn this experience into a longer post on the ephemeral nature of time and my own personal passage of sites and forums that led me here. But then I figured no one would care that much and gave up

I'm ready to concede that this might be their best album

Nothing beats Is This It and Room on Fire.

I would say that John Cage's 4'33 is definitely not better than those two albums so your assertion is false

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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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