site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1302 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 21, 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.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

you'll probably never give them a new kids book, would you?

Kids media (books, movies, games) have, as a general rule, always been complete shit.

This is mostly because the stereotypical kid media isn't actually made for children- they're made for adults who think that's what children like (and they kind of have to be, considering that's who's buying the tickets).

Meanwhile, consider this kids' toy and the fact that the movie it's based on is in a rating category such that theaters would refuse to let the person who would [want to] own that see.

Now, consider that scene where Robocop shoots that guy's dick off. That's going to trigger alarm bells in the adults who see it, but not the children; for the adults, it's "yeah, they're trying to rape the woman", for the children, they're probably not going to get the full implications of "hair down there" (or kinda just roll their eyes a bit)... but "he got shot in the dick lol" still has universal appeal. That's true for most of the superfluous sex scenes in other movies, for that matter- the main downside is not that they'll get it and enjoy it a little too much, but that it degrades the movie to pander to an audience that isn't them. They see sex scenes [and sexuality] the way everyone else sees wokeshit; and ironically the only movies to point this out are themselves 'kids movies'. [Shrek is another one, but is far more explicit about shitting on it, a lot more literally, in the first scene of the movie.]

At best, it's integrated organically into the story- hard to take the sex scene out of Terminator because the entire story is built around it- but if you show a kid that movie I guarantee you he's mainly going to be stomping around the house making robot sounds and saying "I'll be back" way too much, not trying to act out movie sex.

Anyway, so Tolkien is like that. The "wokeshit"/moralizing that is there (which is... mainly bog-standard Christianity in a way that isn't quite as blatant as Lewis' is) isn't all that jarring, as there's a reason for it to be there and it's generally intended positively rather than "Remember Kids, Leave Room For Jesus"-style messaging (like "see, the race of rock people are all gay, remember that being gay is OK" in the middle of a mediocre-to-bad superhero movie).

It's not all that accurate to group "elements of media that adults like" as "adult" to then exclude "not adults" from it. It's OK for most things to be universal.

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