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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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Unusual, yes, but the exceptions can be amazing. We stayed in an AirBnB in a small town in the middle of Missouri (pop. >5000), where the couple rented out three bedrooms of their enormous farmhouse, and everyone was expected to a shared sit-down breakfast of bacon, sausages, fried potatoes, and fresh-baked bread.

That's just a regular BnB.

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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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