Uploaded April 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
HI THERE, QUILLETTE READERS! Holly seems to have used my video (without my permission) to explain the Motte-and-Bailey fallacy, in an article defending some half-baked TERF ideology. I invite you to think critically about why it's so important for TERFs that the legal protections afforded to women are never extended to trans women, why TERFs (at best) insist on separate-but-equal treatment, & why it's so important for them to deny a tiny minority of people the right to live as they choose.
Motte & Bailey Arguments: because defending your actual position is *way* harder than defending a trivial one.
-Links for the Curious-
"The Vacuity of Postmodernist Methodology," by Nicholas Shackel - philpapers.org/archive/SHATVO-2.pdf
"Archaeology of Knowledge," by Michel Foucault, Shackel's ur-punching bag for Motte-and-Bailey-ing - monoskop.org/images/9/90/Foucault_Michel_Archaeology_of_Knowledge.pdf
"The Social Construction of Reality," by Berger & Luckmann - http://perflensburg.se/Berger%20social-construction-of-reality.pdf
"All in All, Another Brick in the Motte," by Scott Alexander - slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-brick-in-the-motte
"Motte & Baileys Explained," by Lagan History - youtube.com/watch?v=yxANUa0XHkA
HI THERE, QUILLETTE READERS! Holly seems to have used my video (without my permission) to explain the Motte-and-Bailey fallacy, in an article defending some half-baked TERF ideology. I invite you to think critically about why it's so important for TERFs that the legal protections afforded to women are never extended to trans women, why TERFs (at best) insist on separate-but-equal treatment, & why it's so important for them to deny a tiny minority of people the right to live as they choose.
Motte & Bailey Arguments: because defending your actual position is *way* harder than defending a trivial one.
-Links for the Curious-
"The Vacuity of Postmodernist Methodology," by Nicholas Shackel - philpapers.org/archive/SHATVO-2.pdf
"Archaeology of Knowledge," by Michel Foucault, Shackel's ur-punching bag for Motte-and-Bailey-ing - monoskop.org/images/9/90/Foucault_Michel_Archaeology_of_Knowledge.pdf
"The Social Construction of Reality," by Berger & Luckmann - http://perflensburg.se/Berger%20social-construction-of-reality.pdf
"All in All, Another Brick in the Motte," by Scott Alexander - slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-brick-in-the-motte
"Motte & Baileys Explained," by Lagan History - youtube.com/watch?v=yxANUa0XHkA
