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PaperclipPerfector  22hr ago (text post)   716 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 1, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What's your Halloween candy kryptonite?

Mine is usually Reese's peanut butter cups or similar chocolate/PB garbage. I went over to a friend's house last night to help pass out candy (they live in a neighborhood that gets hundreds of kids trick or treating) and through superhuman effort managed to not eat any Reeses (or much of anything else). Finally, a win over the appalling sweet tooth.

Nerds, by a mile. The texture of crushing 50 million little pebbles plus the super intense sour/sweet is entirely irreplicable. Also, props to their food scientists for inventing the abomination of Gummy Clusters, they're genuinely innovative imo.

I realize this might be unpopular, but chocolate is bottom tier for me unless it's really rich. Hershey's has cut too many corners lately.

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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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