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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2375 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 15, 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 charities or causes do you donate to? I used to donate to GiveWell, but I'm not sure what I want to do this year.

Givewell, a local homelessness charity, a local rape crisis centre, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Medical Aid for Palestine. For many years I donated to the Brain & Behaviour Research Foundation, but they've been a bit funny with accepting my donations recently for some reason. Used to donate to Nick Bostrom's Future of Humanity institute before it got shut down.

I buy beer from Trappist monasteries.

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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."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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