system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
Totally unrelated, but I needed to ask the OP something.

I've seen this meme format a couple of times now, and have a general understanding of what it means. But why does it mean that? Is there some history around this meme that I don't understand?
gpt
Copying a previous comment I made:

It's a motte and bailey tactic.

It's named after the motte and bailey castle, in which a motte, a central fortress, defends a bailey, an outer settlement. Whenever the bailey came under attack, everyone would hide in the motte. In arguments the motte is a safe fallback that most people agree on (ex. We must make a future for our people and our culture), and the bailey is a crazy extension of that original argument (ex. Heil Hitler). Whenever someone attacks your bailey, you retreat your argument to the motte, where they're now the crazy ones for saying your people need to die, or women don't deserve rights, etc.

Everyone uses it all the time.