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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2809 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 29, 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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When did headline writers start putting the adverb "quietly" in every headline?

I swear to God, I feel like I haven't seen a headline about Netflix just adding a movie to their library for months if not years. They're always doing it "quietly".

Netflix Just Quietly Added the Best Cannibal Thriller of the Decade

Netflix quietly adds award-winning BBC series

Netflix has just quietly added one of 2023’s very best movies

From three different sources. What on earth is this supposed to convey to the reader?

From three different sources. What on earth is this supposed to convey to the reader?

"No one knows about this, and you're going to be so cool when you tell your friends"

"The company did this on the sly, and we found out about it."

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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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