site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2106 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 31, 2025

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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

If he's worried about keeping metros intact, the best way to do this is by pro sports allegiance. Just look at the local media in every area, and see which teams from the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA they cover. Then make a map of as many states as you want, reserving the right to break out rural areas where allegiances might not be as strong.

This is the most natural way to coalesce pre-existing cultural affinities, but how would you account for differences in the importance of allegiances? Delco is both Eagles and Sixers country, but it cares about the Eagles vastly more. I imagine there are places this might become relevant.

Delco isn't the best example because it's Philadelphia any way you slice it. It would be more of a judgment call than anything else, though it only really applies to places with allegiances to teams in two different cities (neither city being the place itself), and in my experience those are usually pretty weak allegiances. For instance, I was chatting with locals at a bar in Clinton County many years ago, and I asked this exact question. The answer I got was "If there's any baseball team people follow here it's the Yankees, but we don't really follow hockey. Steelers definitely." So I'd include them in Pittsburgh and not New York because he made it sound like the Steelers were bigger there than the Yankees, even though there's no way I'd have previously considered it part of the Pittsburgh co-prosperity sphere.

That being said, I'm also taking the position that not all places have allegiances to all sports. People who make those maps try to include everywhere, but I can tell you right now that Pittsburgh does not have an NBA team. The maps lump us in with the Cavs, but the only sense that anyone here is a Cavs fan is that we might root for them if they're in the championship, and they'll play a poorly-attended exhibition game here once every decade or two. But it's not like the Post-Gazette has a Cavs beat writer or they regularly show highlights on the local news.

That being said, I'm also taking the position that not all places have allegiances to all sports.

College allegiances also probably play a role.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats