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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   1709 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 2, 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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First: sex and sexuality topics are quintessential CW material and therefore banned from the Friday Fun Thread.

The OP was about a man arrested because the cops thought his bulge was a gun. Both cops and guns are live culture war issues in the US. If the man in question was Black, the CW-ness of the case increases further.

Do you think the OP was treating them as a CW topic?

The OP was about a man arrested because the cops thought his bulge was a gun. Both cops and guns are live culture war issues in the US. If the man in question was Black, the CW-ness of the case increases further.

Indeed. As the man once said--

Under Moloch, everyone is irresistibly incentivized to ignore the things that unite us in favor of forever picking at the things that divide us in exactly the way that is most likely to make them more divisive.

CW issues will always lurk around the edges. One way to conceptualize what we're saying here is that if you can more or less keep them at the edges, you'll be fine. Or, if you want to foreground the CW issues, then go to the CW thread.

The mod team is a reasonable bunch. We're asking the userbase to also be reasonable, while noting that in fact the userbase is, overwhelmingly and in almost every case, appropriately reasonable.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


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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