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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   5124 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 5, 2023

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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or more likely, NGO/associated state actors/alignment (((researchers))) make purchasing impossible

Okay, we don't ban Joo-posting per se (as a browse through recent threads will clearly show), but using the triple parentheses like that to wave vaguely at (((Jews))) when making some sort of partisan culture war point is a very clear example of Not Speaking Plainly.

If you want to say you suspect Jews of nefariousness, you actually have to spell out that it's Jews, not weasel around with ((())), and then you have to back that up just like any other boo outgroup assertion.

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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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