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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1823 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 2025

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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Their isn't any credible debate

Again, the problem is we were also told this about many things during COVID that clearly had legitimate credible debate! You are arguing over benefits to the commons, while not realizing the commons was torched by public health on several different occasions during COVID because they got too caught up in #currentthing to think about what they were doing or approach things with any sort of introspection or understanding of past pandemic response policy.

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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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