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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1994 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 31, 2024

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 show, film, book, or album had the most intense or beautiful dramatic moment for you? What was the moment?

One scene that stuck with me is from the book 'A Death in Holy Orders' by P.D. James where the end confession letter has the lines:" ...In this senseless age where we witness the death of culture, beauty what are we to do? ... Like a child building sand castles to stem the tide we are doomed and powerless against the rot tearing the system down... In the end I joined the barbarians...." My words and paraphrasing do not do her words justice.

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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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