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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2412 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 want to be in Ravenclaw so I can hang out with Cho Chang.

My man!

My "type" was established from a very young age.

I kind of wish I'd had the experience of never seeing anyone outside my ethnic group until adulthood.

When I was about 11 I started going to a heavily-black school and was blown away by how differently actual black people not just acted, but looked, than the black people I was familiar with from TV. I'd just stare and stare at the alienness of their facial structures and hair. And then there's the speech.

The ones I'd met previously were clearly survivors of any number of social filters.

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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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