motte and bailey
The predecessor of the European castle, having a raised earth mound topped with a…The predecessor of the European castle, having a raised earth mound (the motte) topped with a tower (or donjon), and a wooden ring fortification surrounding a courtyard (the bailey).
» Fascism is the motte to capitalism's bailey.
rul · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesThe predecessor of the European castle, having a raised earth mound (the motte) topped with a tower (or donjon), and a wooden ring fortification surrounding a courtyard (the bailey).
(rhetoric)A form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two similar positions, one modest and easier to defend (the "motte") and one much more controversial (the "bailey"), by advancing the controversial position, but when challenged, insisting that they are only advancing the more modest position.
Examples
1 sentencesFascism is the motte to capitalism's bailey.
Origin
(form of argument): Coined by philosopher Nicholas Shackel.(form of argument): Coined by philosopher Nicholas Shackel.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.