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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   5128 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 24, 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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It's not nice of me to call Tom Scott a cuck, but I don't think of him as a real person. The only reason why I am able to insult him in the first place is because Tom Scott, the person, does not exist. I wouldn't speak like that about anyone I know, because they would be real, and even just thinking badly of them would make me feel terrible.

Some of the best (worst) mental gymnastics I've ever read.

And all this over the word "midwit" which isn't even an insult.

It's not mental gymnastics; I'm sincerely expressing why I don't mind insulting someone I don't know. And this extends beyond insults to all aspects of life. Our concern is naturally highest for those closest to us. When this isn't the case, we start caring more about rocks than our families.

The badness of an insult derives from the labour of deindividualization required in producing it. The closer someone is to us, the more challenging it should be to express negative thoughts about them. I find it horrifying how somone can casually insult their coworkers and not feel anything.

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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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