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Notes -
A legal case involving what are known as "80%" receivers is working its way through the federal court system, under the title Vanderstok v Garland.
For those of you who are not aware of the terminology, an "80%" receiver is a chunk of metal or polymer that does not meet the federal definition of a "firearm" at the time of its initial manufacture and sale. After sale, these objects are generally modified by consumers to produce home-built, unserialized firearm receivers. You may have also heard of these resultant firearms described as "ghost guns".
While the origin and evolution of the term "ghost gun" is interesting, it's considerably less interesting than the most recent 5th circuit opinion re: Vanderstok. The opinion directly quotes and cites an article from slatestarcodex.com.
This interests me for a few reasons. The first is that it's only the second time I've ever seen SSC referenced in "normie" spaces: the first being the NYT hit-piece from a few years back. The second is that the 5th circuit is broadly viewed as the most conservative-leaning of the US circuit courts, so it's interesting to see one of Scott's more noteworthy pieces showing up there.
I’ve seen ‘motte and bailey argument’ a few times online in recent years unconnected to SSC, here or the general rationalist sphere. It’s possible they heard it elsewhere and then just posted the source for the citation.
I'm pretty sure it's popularity is attributable to Scott. Even if people using it don't read him, there's probably some community overlap that causes it to end up spreading to Youtube influencer communities, and then to influencers themselves, which is when it explodes.
In any case "motte/bailey" is one thing, I've started seing "assabiah". I swear, a year or two from now we'll start seeing manosphere types talking about "the Hock".
My search and reference skills are clearly lacking at the moment, so I have to be the one to ask; 'The Hock'?
"The Hock" is the Hock, our local Forever Alone poster's quest to find a waifu in the freezing tundra of Alaska.
Huh.
Given the men to women ratio in Alaska, that wouldn't have been my first choice. A better option would probably be the Pacific Trail, but what do I know.
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