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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2329 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 4, 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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Anyone have thoughts on the Olympics Last Supper controversy?

After admitting they were satirizing da Vinci's masterpiece, they chenged their defense and said the tableaux was a reference to some obscure painting (itself inspired by TLS). The pro-opening ceremony faction received the system update, and went from arguing that Christianity is fair game, to mocking the ignorant morons for their supposed ignorance of art history. Very 1984.

Edit: Vatican's denunciation.

Iran lodged a formal diplomatic complaint over it with France.

Edit: Vatican's denunciation.

What's the Catholic equivalent of a fatwa?

Papal bulls?

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.

Excommunication.

Doesn't really work on someone who's not a practicing Catholic.

The Secret History of the Catholic Church that you won't learn in school is that, as mean as we can be to non-Catholics, our most vicious attacks are reserved for other Catholics.

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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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