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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   242 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 27, 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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Is there Fiverr or the like in Damascus? Perhaps you could hire a venue, producers, and a few amateur musicians to put on a minimum viable metal show. I have no information, but I would guess that cost of services there are low, such that you could still come out ahead if you win the bet, depending on how much you value izzat.

This is the way. Literal win-win.

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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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