In the following YouTube video by Thunk, we learn about the “motte and bailey” fallacy, its origins, and how it’s used to confuse and deceive. Put simply, the argument conflates a strong and obvious position (the motte) with a controversial or pernicious one (the bailey.) It has been put to excessive use in the last year by the media and propaganda merchants.
During the past year, we saw the motte and bailey fallacy in action when the George Floyd protests got mixed up with violent riots. The video of George Floyd’s death at the hands of abusive cops infuriated everyone. Everyone agreed that corrupt individuals should be brought to justice- this was a “motte” position. However, the far left took the “bailey” position that “all cops are bastards” and police departments nationwide should be defunded.
Not soon after, peaceful protests were organized to promote common sense police reform (motte). Unfortunately, nefarious agitators snuck into those crowds and induced them into committing riots, blocking highways, and other acts to disrupt civil society (bailey.) My previous post explains how herd psychology works, and the agitators used those principles to take control of crowds and corrupt them.
Currently, we’re witnessing “cancel culture” and attempts to excuse it as something different. Individuals and old intellectual properties are accused of bigotry or harassment, then their corporate employers terminate them, or social media platforms delete their accounts. The left calls this “accountability culture.” I propose we make a distinction, that accountability culture means acting on true and proven accusations (motte), whereas cancel culture means acting on false accusations (bailey.)
Finally, I want to make the distinction between true liberals, who sincerely want justice for the disadvantaged, and the Far Left, who are fake liberals with sinister ulterior motives. The same can be said for true conservatives, who want law and order and are accepting of diversity, against the Far Right, who are the real bigots and use conservatism as a disguise. In my opinion, true liberals and conservatives have very little to disagree about.
