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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   1810 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 29, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Don't confuse people who exercise the power with people who are nominally this power exercise is benefitting. The Supreme Dictator of the People's Democratic Republic maybe nominally is ruling for the benefit of the people, but he has all the power and the people have none. You can be a lily-white man and still exercise power "on behalf of oppressed minorities" - if you're lucky of course.

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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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