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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3506 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

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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I thought telegram is a messaging app like Whatsapp

I think all the cool kids moved on to discord and telegram. The problem with the latter is that you can’t sign up for an anonymous account; it requires a phone number.

Telegram has giant chatrooms. It's a huge thing in the open source intelligence world right now. A ton of information about the war in Ukraine gets posted in telegram first, and then makes its way out to more normal news channels.

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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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