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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2729 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 7, 2023

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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Thank you for introducing me to Lord of the Maps: those maps are exactly what I needed in my life.

Lord of the Maps ever so vaguely invokes what I thought was a staple of nearly every home that was established in the 80's that I ever visited or lived in. An artistically taken photograph of the house when it was first built. Always with the color subtly faded, either by time or by process. And I remember in my profound summer boredom staring for extended periods of time at the one in my house, noticing how much trees grew, or which pushes had been taken out, etc, etc.

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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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