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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   542 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 28, 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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I was hesitant where to post it, but quickly dismissed the culture war thread as this has nothing to do with politics.
This one seemed as the closest match, and hey, I personally do find philosophy and the connected blogosphere as one of the major sources of my entertainment

I was hesitant where to post it, but quickly dismissed the culture war thread as this has nothing to do with politics.

Culture war is often explicitly politics-related, but it's also something a little different from politics, and I think a lot of people would consider atheism/religion (or perhaps atheism/Christianity specifically) as one of the OG culture wars in the internet forum sphere.

I actually wonder now who/when/where the first internet flame war about the existence of God/god took place, and if it's still accessible somewhere, or if it's been lost forever to the sands of time. Most likely the latter. Likely no way of provably knowing that any given one was the first one, anyway, unless it could be traced to the very first instance of some message board technology such that one can be sure no earlier example could have technologically existed.

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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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