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PaperclipPerfector  14d ago (text post)   2460 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 7, 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.

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Grok seems to be schizophrenic when it comes to me. I put in the prompt and asked it to analyse my posts on TheMotte, and asked the question three times. I got Herbert Marcuse the first time (lol), Thomas Sowell the second, and George Orwell on the third go. These are all people with wildly varying politics on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Then I asked it to give me an ancient historical figure and it spit out Thucydides.

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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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