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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3146 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 31, 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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My local distribution:

  • Almost everyone: no mask.

  • Most maskers: paper or cloth.

    • Truly non-functional attempts at protection. A few of my coworkers are this way. Pulling up their non-functional cloth or paper mask when I approach them. As though sitting unmasked in an open office, but masking when talking to a particular person makes any sense.

  • The select few elite amongst the maskers: N95.

    • Strangely my techy coworkers aren't counted among them. But the fat rental desk worker at Home Depot is.

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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.


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