Hyehudi.org

First, what is the “Motte and Bailey” fallacy?

From a certain wiki:

Motte and bailey (MAB) is a combination of bait-and-switch and equivocation in which someone switches between a “motte” (an easy-to-defend and often common-sense statement, such as “culture shapes our experiences”) and a “bailey” (a hard-to-defend and more controversial statement, such as “cultural knowledge is just as valid as scientific knowledge”) in order to defend a viewpoint. Someone will argue the easy-to-defend position (motte) temporarily, to ward off critics, while the less-defensible position (bailey) remains the desired belief, yet is never actually defended.

In short: instead of defending a weak position (the “bailey”), the arguer retreats to a strong position (the “motte”), while acting as though the positions are equivalent. When the motte has been accepted (or found impenetrable) by an opponent, the arguer continues to believe (and perhaps promote) the bailey.

Note that the MAB works only if the motte and the bailey are sufficiently similar (at least superficially) that one can switch between them while pretending that they are equivalent. There exist a number of common rhetorical ploys and ‘sleights-of-tongue’ which can mask the apparency of such a transition.

Where does the expression come from?

Says Wikipedia:

A Motte and Bailey castle is a medieval system of defence in which a stone tower on a mound (the Motte) is surrounded by an area of land (the Bailey) which in turn is encompassed by some sort of a barrier such as a ditch. Being dark and dank, the Motte is not a habitation of choice. The only reason for its existence is the desirability of the Bailey, which the combination of the Motte and ditch makes relatively easy to retain despite attack by marauders. When only lightly pressed, the ditch makes small numbers of attackers easy to defeat as they struggle across it: when heavily pressed the ditch is not defensible and so neither is the Bailey. Rather one retreats to the insalubrious but defensible, perhaps impregnable, Motte. Eventually the marauders give up, when one is well placed to reoccupy desirable land. … the Bailey, represents a philosophical doctrine or position with similar properties: desirable to its proponent but only lightly defensible. The Motte is the defensible but undesired position to which one retreats when hard pressed.

So, a Kahanist will first argue we should actively rejoice upon seeing the suffering of the wicked for its own sake, not as a means to the goal, and quote pesukim of Jewish cruelty in war, ישמח צדיק כי חזה נקם פעמיו ירחץ בדם הרשע and אשרי שיאחז ונפץ את עלליך אל הסלע (Motte).

Then, when confronted with careful analysis, and counters, the Kahanist retreats to saying we should merely rejoice in the downfall of the wicked, even if this entails human suffering (Bailey).

דוק ותשכח.

I’ll tell you: NOTHING!

When you give the wrong message at the wrong time, there is nothing good or holy or anything positive about it.

I won’t judge the writers who made one little lie as lip service (Sotah 35a: ?וכי זו בלבד עשה לנו בן עמרם) to get across the opposite message.

Such as Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein on Cross-Currents:

Rav Gershon Edelstein’s, shlit”a, words are a powerful reproach about how we use speech. But they cannot be the last word, the only takeaway from this horrible story.

Or Rabbi S. E. Zeitlin:

צריך להיזהר מאד לא לקחת את דברי הגרי”ג שליט”א למקום לא נכון. מסופר כי הח”ח ביקש מהגאון ר’ חיים עוזר זצ”ל לחתום על כרוז שדיבור לשה”ר כאכילת חזיר, והגרח”ע סירב, ונימק, שחושש כי אחרי כרוז כזה אנשים לא יפסיקו לדבר לשה”ר, אלא יתחילו לאכול חזיר. גם כאן צריך להיזהר שלא ייווצר מצב שבמקום להיזהר יותר בבן אדם לחברו, יזלזלו באיסורי עריות ורציחה של נפגעים.

Not my way, but more power to them.

But what of sly Fifth-Columnist-columnist Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer speaking out of both sides of his mouth? And the usual suspects; Mishpacha, etc.?

What can be learned from the “Gedolim” who turned darkness into light and light into darkness, made bitter as sweet, and sweet as bitter?

If you insist, here are some lessons:

1. If someone can get up and contradict the whole Sefer Chafetz Chaim — the one book studied by every Charedi man woman and child from Dan to Be’er Sheva — without 75% immediately pointing out the speaker’s nakedness, this means we don’t have a Hilchos Lashon Hara glut. (Or, well, we have bigger problems…!)
2. Next time this new Gadol leads a Daas Torah crusade to throw non-Charedi “infidels” out of the Holy Land, let’s regard this glaring gem of geonus as Achashverosh’s “Iggros Rishonos” (Megillah 12b: אלמלא אגרות הראשונות לא נשתייר משונאיהן של ישראל שריד ופליט) and not ask how high to jump or how many times to vote.
3. Did you ever hear any sort of apology? Anything other than R’ Edelstein-toady Rabbi Y. Eichenstein of Yad Aaron’s vile “clarifications” digging themselves all into a deeper pit? Me neither.
4. We learned how to write their own obits: We should definitely append the “Zatzal” word to their names. Don’t worry! Now CW’s mates at Yated used it on CW, it means nothing, anyway. We can also say they “knew what Bein Adam Lachaveiro was”, and even “held the correct worldview and pure Fear of Heaven”. It’s alright! Rabbi Natan Zochovosky of the Israeli Yated Ne’eman publicly eulogized CW using these exact words, presumably following Rabbi Edelstein’s instructions. There can surely be no greater honor. And so on…
5. Never forget that CW was actually a mouthpiece for so-called “Da’as Torah” in the “Da’as Torah” paper. So, they were defending themselves.

Enough for now.

Great quote by historian Gary North about the illusion of choice in the American Deep State (in an article about the Civil War):

… Everybody wants to talk about the battles. On the whole, the battles were militarily irrelevant. The North had trains, the telegraph, the industries, the navy, and the population to sustain the war. It had the tax base. It had the banking system. The fall of Atlanta sealed the fate of the South, but it was not a battle. If it had taken place after November, Lincoln would have lost the election. If the South had held out until the following March, McClellan probably would have settled with the South. But Atlanta fell, and McClellan wasn’t elected.

The forgotten fact that you should begin with concerning the Civil War is this: the future of the North from 1860 to 1865 was dependent on the Illinois Central Railroad. Lincoln was a lawyer with that railroad. Stephen A. Douglas was a lawyer with that railroad. In senior management was George McClellan, who oversaw both of them. So, in the election of 1860, the President was going to be won by an Illinois Central lawyer. In the election of 1864, the election was going to be won by an employee of the Illinois Central Railroad.

Anybody who thinks this was random is the kind of person who believes that it was random in 2004 when a member of Yale’s Skull and Bones was going to be elected President. This is an organization that selects 15 people a year. Out of all the people in the United States, the only candidates who made it to the top were Skull and Bones members in 2004, neither of whom was allowed, or is allowed, by the secret oath of the organization to discuss the organization. Similarly, historians of the Civil War rarely bother to talk about the centrality of the Illinois Central Railroad.

The very same historians who love talking about the railroad robber barons…

Excerpts from a blog article:

Even now, two years into the #ForeverPlague, I still hear people talking about getting Covid as if they were admitting to having an STD–always in hushed tones with eyes askance. It’s as if the only way a person can be infected is if they are reckless with their health and careless about everyone else, or if they’re a knuckle-dragging science denier whose backwards lifestyle begs to be punished by such an illness. After all, it’s the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” who deserve a long, dark winter of sadness and death, or somesuch.

Weird how even people who are vaccinated can get the disease. Also people who are super careful. Even people in Antarctic research stations.

…

So much of the public conversation about Covid seems couched in shame and exclusion language, and that nonsense needs to end.

Here’s the reality about Covid-19, gang:

• It’s a respiratory virus, so it’s never going to be eradicated. We’ll have to figure out how to live with it, just like we live with influenza.
• Treatments will continue to be developed and improve. More options will become available for both prevention and treatment.
• Vaccines don’t protect against ever getting infected. It stinks, but it’s true. However, vaccines *do* seem to make subsequent bouts of the illness easier to manage. We can discuss and dispute over whether or not that’s sufficient justification for getting it versus the possible risks and side effects.
• We should all be free to make the decision about vaccines without external compulsion of any kind. This should be stupidly self-evident, but there you go.
• Natural immunity is usually better than artificial immunity. Artificial immunity is probably better than simply living with higher vulnerability due to comorbidities.
• We can do a lot of things to boost our immune systems and give ourselves the best chance to fight off the #ForeverPlague. Take good-quality supplements for Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and zinc. Get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Drink water. Sleep sufficiently. Eat good-quality food.
• If you test positive, talk to your own doctor (and not some whacko on the internet) about what treatments and medications may be appropriate for you personally based on your medical history and current health status. Again, talk to YOUR doctor and make a decision with YOUR doctor’s input.
• Pay attention to your symptoms and don’t be a doofus and go out in public when you’re clearly sick. It’s not rocket surgery.

To address the end of the video above: yes, people are deciding to go back to work, go back to school, and move on with life. The virus should be taken seriously, but we still have to move on. It’s not the bubonic plague, killing a third of the population in a matter of months or years; with some basic preventative and/or supportive care, 99% of folks who get Covid will be okay in a few weeks. The rest, we can all try to watch out for and help out as we can.

And ultimately, I believe that whether or not you catch the ‘Rona is in God’s hands. Do your best, be wise about it, and trust the sovereignty of the King of the Universe. Our days are in His hands, and we’re not even promised our next breath. So just chill out and be grateful for His myriad blessings.

See the rest here…