Defending a modest claim under challenge while advancing an ambitious one when unchallenged.
Shackel's 2005 term from medieval fortification: the bailey is the desirable indefensible ground, the motte the defensible one nobody wants. The equivocation is between the two rather than within a word.
In practice
- A claim defended as "we simply mean people should be considerate" was advanced as something far stronger before it was challenged.
- A framework sold as a rigorous methodology retreats under scrutiny to "it's just about talking to each other".
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- The catalogue of predictable errors