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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   3499 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 17, 2024

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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Trace had massive reservations about the state of The Motte even in 2020, and we're further down the rabbithole now.

Our local progressives will have to speak for themselves, but I'm somehow getting the feeling that the reservations have decreased despite the skew of this place increasing.

As a whole the community has become more polite offsite, I think because the leakage from/to various places with lower standards was reduced. Even if you’re a shitposter or troll elsewhere, coming here, to a separate site, kind of has a calming or separating effect on one’s internet persona.

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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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