The Tower of Wrong: The Art of Professional Lying

James Joyce is credited with this wisdom, “A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Indeed, I would choose rather to be informatively incorrect, over disinformatively or uselessly correct, any day. This contrast in type of ‘wrong’ illuminates the domain of Machiavellian ideas, The Tower of Wrong; ideas which are woven of fact, yet serve to constitute in the end only adornments of error.
Beyond the three proposition framings of Wittgenstein, there exist six mechanisms of social imposition and the football-like nature of how quasi-truth is handled, which serve as the linchpins inside professional lying. The Tower of Wrong depicts how partly correct, correct but useless or dis-informing evidence (Wittgenstein sinnlos) is to be clarified as distinct from deontological information – information reliable in being critically predictive or bearing falsification outcomes.

evidence-sculptingUnder a Popperian standard of scientific demarcation, if something is rendered moot through consilience of its opposing thesis, then it is not falsified necessarily, however we may select it to stand as either a null hypothesis or a provisionally accepted norm nonetheless – most philosophers grasp this.  Of key concern however inside such a process of knowledge development, is when the possibility exists that our resulting relegation of an opposing idea to the state of moot-ness (pseudoscience) might stand as simply a provisional assumption bearing a dangerous undetermined risk? In general, a provisional conclusion is regarded to possess informing ability if that provision then becomes critically predictive when posed inside its structure of consilience.  By ‘critically’ – I mean that the provisional assumption itself serves to produce the prediction, not that it simply resides as a feature inside a host of other predictive peer elements. Evolution is an example of one such reliable predictor. However, purely random allele mutation is not a critically reliable predictor inside evolutionary theory, despite evolution itself so being.

Thus I cannot simply declare falsification to be the sole threshing tool means by which one establishes knowledge/truth/accuracy/foundation philosophy. Given this playground of slack, just below the threshold of Popper falsification, it behooves the ethical skeptic to be wary of the ploys which can serve to deceive inside claims of ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’. It is not simply that our minds can deceive us into selecting for desired outcomes, this is a given. Moreover, our most risk-bearing vulnerability instead resides in the fact that stacks of unvetted, non-reliably predictive ‘evidence’ can provisionally stack (see The Warning Indicators of Stacked Provisional Knowledge) and serve to misinform and mislead us as to wrong or useless conclusions under a ‘scientific’ context as well. The following questions should be asked, when any proposition or claim to settled science has been issued as authority:

   Omega Hypothesis: Six Forms of the Professional Lie

1.  The (Wonka) Golden Ticket – Have we ever really tested the predictive strength of this idea standalone, or evaluated its antithetical ideas for falsification? Does an argument proponent constantly insist on a ‘burden of proof’ upon any contrasting idea, a burden that they never attained for their argument in the first place? An answer they fallaciously imply is the scientific null hypothesis; ‘true’ until proved otherwise?

Einfach Mechanism (facile, simple, fake hypothesis)

An idea which is not yet mature under the tests of a valid or real hypothesis, yet is installed as the null hypothesis or best explanation regardless. An explanation, theory or idea which sounds scientific, yet resolves a contention through bypassing the scientific method, then moreover is installed as truth thereafter solely by means of pluralistic ignorance around the idea itself. Pseudo-theory which is not fully tested at its inception, nor is ever held to account thereafter. An idea which is not vetted by the rigor of falsification, predictive consilience nor mathematical derivation, rather is simply considered such a quickly derived, easy-to-understand, or Occam’s Razor (sic) stemming-from-simplicity idea that the issue is closed as finished science or philosophy from its proposition and acceptance onward. A pseudo-theory of false hypothesis which is granted status as the default null hypothesis or as posing the ‘best explanation’, without having to pass the rigors with which its competing alternatives are burdened. The Einfach mechanism is often accompanied by social rejection of competing and necessary alternative hypotheses, which are embargoed from study. Moreover, the Einfach hypothesis will be regarded by the strong-arm of the scientific community as ‘true’ until proved otherwise. An Einfach mechanism may or may not be existentially true, but given its illegitimate installation as the null, most likely is false.

2.  Cheater’s Hypothesis – Does the hypothesis or argument couch a number of imprecise terms or predicate concepts? Is it mentioned often by journalists or other people wishing to appear impartial and comprehensive? Is the argument easily falsified through a few minutes of research, yet seems to be mentioned in every subject setting anyway?

Imposterlösung Mechanism (imposter answer)

The cheater’s answer. A disproved, incoherent or ridiculous contention, or one which fails the tests to qualify as a real hypothesis, which is assumed as a potential hypothesis anyway simply because it sounds good or is packaged for public consumption. These alternatives pass muster with the general public, but are easily falsified after mere minutes of real research. Employing the trick of pretending that an argument domain which does not bear coherency nor soundness – somehow (in violation of science and logic) falsely merits assignment as a ‘hypothesis’. Despite this, most people hold them in mind simply because of their repetition. This fake hypothesis circumstance is common inside an argument which is unduly influenced by agency. They are often padded into skeptical analyses, to feign an attempt at appearing to be comprehensive, balanced, or ‘considering all the alternatives’.

ad hoc/Pseudo-Theory – a placeholder construct which suffers from the additional flaw in that it cannot be fully falsified, deduced nor studied, and can probably never be addressed or further can be proposed in almost any circumstance of uncertainty. These ideas will be thrown out for decades. They can always be thrown out. They will always be thrown out. Sometimes also called ‘blobbing’ or ‘god of the gaps’, it is a bucket into which one dumps every unknown, hate-based, fear-based and unexplained observation – add in a jigger of virtue – then you shake it up like a vodka martini, and get drunk on the encompassing paradigm which can explain everything, anything and nothing all at the same time.

3.  Omega Hypothesis (HΩ) – Is the idea so important or virtuous, that it now stands more important that the methods of science, or science itself. Does the idea leave a trail of dead competent professional bodies behind it?

Höchste Mechanism (supreme answer)

When a position or practice, purported to be of scientific basis, is elevated to such importance or virtue that removing the rights of professionals and citizens to dissent, speak, organize or disagree (among other rights) is justified in order to protect the position or the practice inside society.

Constructive Ignorance (Lemming Weisheit or Lemming Doctrine) – a process related to the Lindy Effect and pluralistic ignorance, wherein discipline researchers are rewarded for being productive rather than right, for building ever upward instead of checking the foundations of their research, for promoting doctrine rather than challenging it. These incentives allow weak confirming studies to to be published and untested ideas to proliferate as truth. And once enough critical mass has been achieved, they create a collective perception of strength or consensus.

4.  Embargo Hypothesis (Hξ) – was the science terminated years ago, in the midst of large-impact questions of a critical nature which still remain unanswered? Is such research now considered ‘anti-science’ or ‘pseudoscience’? Is there enormous social pressure to not even ask questions inside the subject? Is mocking and derision high – curiously in excess of what the subject should merit?

Entscheiden Mechanism (decide preemptively)

The pseudoscientific or tyrannical approach of, when faced with epistemology which is heading in an undesired direction, artificially declaring under a condition of praedicate evidentia, the science as ‘settled’ and all opposing ideas, anti-science, credulity and pseudoscience.

Poison Pill Hypothesis – the instance wherein sskeptics or agency work hard to promote lob & slam condemnation of particular ideas. A construct obsession target used to distract or attract attack-minded skeptics into a contrathetic impasse or argument. The reason this is done is not the confusion or clarity it provides, rather the disincentive which patrolling skeptics place on the shoulders of the genuine skilled researcher. These forbidden alternatives (often ‘paranormal’ or ‘pseudoscience’ or ‘conspiracy theory’ buckets) may be ridiculous or indeed ad hoc themselves – but the reason they are raised is to act as a warning to talented researchers that ‘you might be tagged as supporting one of these crazy ideas’ if you step out of line and do not visibly support the Omega Hypothesis. A great example is the skeptic community tagging of anyone who considers the idea that the Khufu pyramid at Giza might have not been built by King Khufu in 2450 bce, as therefore now supporting conspiracy theories or aliens as the builders – moreover, their being racist against Arabs who now are the genetic group which occupies modern Egypt.

5.  Evidence Sculpting – has more evidence been culled from the field of consideration for this idea, than has been retained? Has the evidence been sculpted to fit the idea, rather than the converse?

Skulptur Mechanism (strategic doubting)

The pseudoscientific method of treating evidence as a work of sculpture. Methodical inverse negation techniques employed to dismiss data, block research, obfuscate science and constrain ideas such that what remains is the conclusion one sought in the first place. A common tactic of those who boast of all their thoughts being ‘evidence based’. The tendency to view a logical razor as a device which is employed to ‘slice off’ unwanted data (evidence sculpting tool), rather than as a cutting tool (pharmacist’s cutting and partitioning razor) which divides philosophically valid and relevant constructs from their converse.

Also, the instance common in media wherein so-called ‘fact-based’ media sites tell 100% truth about 50% the relevant story. This is the same as issuing 50% misinformation or disinformation.

6.  Lindy-Ignorance Vortex – do those who enforce or imply a conforming idea or view, seem to possess a deep emotional investment in ensuring that no broach of subject is allowed regarding any thoughts or research around an opposing idea or specific ideas or avenues of research they disfavor? Do they easily and habitually imply that their favored conclusions are the prevailing opinion of scientists? Is there an urgency to reach or sustain this conclusion by means of short-cut words like ‘evidence’ and ‘fact’? If such disfavored ideas are considered for research or are broached, then extreme disdain, social and media derision are called for?

Verdrängung Mechanism (proxy hypothesis in lieu of a scientific one)

The level of control and idea displacement achieved through skillful employment of the duality between pluralistic ignorance and the Lindy Effect. The longer a control-minded group can sustain an Omega Hypothesis perception by means of the tactics and power protocols of proactive pluralistic ignorance, the greater future acceptability and lifespan that idea will possess. As well, the harder it will to be dethrone as an accepted norm or perception as a ‘proved’ null hypothesis.

If the answer to any or all six of these questions is a very likely yes, it does not mean that the defended idea is necessarily invalid; rather that the methods of socially arriving at, accepting and enforcing it are invalid. These are the litmus tests of professional lying at play. Take notice that a ‘fact’ therefore does not serve to necessarily transfer or increase knowledge. Evidence is an amorphous hard to grasp principle which can be sculpted to fit an idea through the actions of a perfidious minded party. A principle which wise philosophers understand, but pseudo-skeptics do not.

dont-farm-tumbleweedsThe danger of such unethical practice sets inside of science are two-fold. Fist, at face value, incorrect ideas and tyrannical social science or public policy can be enforced as scientifically correct paradigms by means of these four mechanisms. But even more important,

even valid science can lose its public trust credibility when enforced by unethical means such as these six mechanisms (see Covid Pandemic 2018 – 2023)

One cannot simply run around conducting unethical social activity in the name of science, and justify it through one’s credentials being, or pretending to be scientific. The danger in discrediting valid science is simply too high – one is ‘farming tumbleweeds’, as the adage goes.  Man-made global climate change is an example of just such a situation, wherein unethical strong-arm and preemptive measures were used to enforce an academic idea before it was fully vetted by science (see Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, 1972).  AGW turned out after the fact to have merit, but only after further studies occurred after the social chicanery, arrogance and derision had been well underway. We made enemies, rather than science. In this regard, AGW proponents, practicing these four mechanisms, turned out to be their own worst enemy – and every bit as damaging to the climate change advocacy message as are the AGW deniers today.

Which introduces now, this broader context of just what constitutes different states of being ‘wrong’. Wittgenstein identified a tri-fold disposition framework for propositions, which help the ethical skeptic work their way through this menagerie of ‘wrong’ and sort their way to the deontological goals of value and clarity. The ability to discern much of this, the critical set of nuance inside of Popperian theory of science demarcation and Wittgenstein delineation of meaninglessness, nonsense and uselessness, resides at the heart of what I call The Tower of Wrong.

Mis-Sense (sinnlos) or Useless Correctness Resides at the Heart of the Professional Lie

confused-deluded-and-the-skilled-liarSo we have established that the value of a proposition therefore relates to its nature in being critically informative or predictive. It cannot simply hide on the team of players composing a proposition or theory, it has to be THE star player when its time has come to stand at bat. What then do we do with Snoping; a condition wherein a proposition is factually correct, but because of the non-salient or useless nature of the chosen question or quickly ascertained ¡fact! surrounding it, only serves to dis-inform? The Tower of Wrong shows us how partly correct, correct but useless, mis-sense or dis-informing evidence (Wittgenstein sinnlos) is to be clarified as distinct from deontological information – information reliable in being critically predictive or bearing falsification outcomes.

Recently we finished a vitriolic presidential election, inside of which a particular accusation had been made from one of the candidates towards the other. Specifically, Hillary Clinton was accused of mishandling classified material at origin, by sending it through non-secure means of communication, and handling it in a non-secured environment and by means of non-secured premises and procedure.  The accusation pertained to a batch of several thousand emails which bore classified material and classified context, but were sent over personal computers and media services in violation of the National Security Act.

Clinton’s technically correct response to the allegations was issued as follows:

I have a lot of experience dealing with classified material, starting when I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee going into the four years as secretary of state,” she said. “Classified material has a header which says ‘top secret, secret, confidential.’ Nothing, and I will repeat this, and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice, none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.   ~Hillary Clinton ¹

Now let’s break this set of propositions down by their logical calculus under The Tower of Wrong deontological framing of mis-sense:

  • First sentence – true (red herring, appeal to authority)
  • Second sentence – true, but not a logical truth (serves to dis-inform – ingens vanitatum – see below)
  • Third sentence – true, but ignoratio elenchi (a misdirection in argument around threatening ‘classified material at origin’ laws under national security)

In other words,  what Ms. Clinton did here was authoritatively lie, through facts and argument misdirection.  How do I know? I was a director level Black Top Secret intelligence officer for years. I know how classified material is to be handled at origin. Ms. Clinton conveniently misdirected the argument to a context of administrative handling conditions, wherein she either originated classified material, or re-posted or discussed such material stripped of its Controlling Authority context and marking. Nice trick. Origin classified material NEVER has ‘top secret, secret, confidential’ markings. Those dispositions are only tendered later by the Controlling Authority.² However, classified material of such nature prior to disposition is handled in the same way as is all classified material – and any recitation or discussion of such materials retains the classification of the referenced material itself (recitation: Executive Order 13526 and National Security Act procedures for handling classified material at origin).² If what Ms. Clinton claimed about having ‘a lot of experience dealing with classified material [at] the Armed Services Committee’ was true, and I think it was; then Ms. Clinton knew this to be a misdirection. She lied by means of an ignoratio elenchi fallacy called ingens vanitatum. A key element inside The Tower of Wrong.

Ingens Vanitatum

/philosophy : argument : fallacy : ignoratio elenchi/ (Latin: ingens ‘vast’ and vanitatum ‘archives’ or ‘vanities’) – knowing a great deal of irrelevance (noise: lack of relevance) and/or inconsequence (smoke & mirrors: lack of salience), or the citing of such disinformation. A form of rhetoric through Nelsonian knowledge of most facets of a subject and most of the latest propaganda therein. A condition which bears irony however, in that this supervacuous, irrelevant, or inconsequential set of knowledge stands as all that composes the science, or all that is possessed by the person making a claim to knowledge. A useless set of information which serves only to displace any relevance, salience, or logical calculus of the actual argument, principle or question at hand. The skillful exploitation of irrelevance and/or inconsequence which serves to disinform or deceive.

Ingens Vanitatum Argument – citing a great deal of irrelevance. A posing of ‘fact’ or ‘evidence’ framed inside an appeal to expertise, which is correct and relevant information at face value; however which serves to dis-inform as to the nature of the argument being vetted or the critical evidence or question being asked.

Hillary Clinton’s statement was a correct lie in other words. She lied with facts. The statement does not serve to inform, rather it serves to dis-inform us all. This is what is called an Organic Untruth. It is one of the tools in the utility belt of the skilled professional liar and stands as one of the stack of key elements inside The Tower of Wrong (more specifically the ’50 Shades of Correct’ below).  So without any further ado, let us expand on this towering set of conditions of incorrectness.  In the chart below, you will observe the three Wittgenstein Proposition Framings, in burgundy (bedeutungslos, unsinnig and sinnlos) – comprising the stack elements which constitute the journey from confusion, to delusion, to lying…

…highlighting the final breakthrough in the mind of the ethical skeptic: Value and Clarity. The critical deontological nature of relevant, salient and scientific critical path information, as they are enabled by knowledge and the state of being found incorrect (has value: see blue pyramid stacks below).

The Components of the Professional Lie

At the heart of the professional lie, resides the agenda they are seeking to protect, the Omega Hypothesis. This is the agenda, conclusion or theory – which has become more important to protect, than the integrity of science itself.

Omega Hypothesis (HΩ) – the argument which is foisted to end all argument, period. A conclusion promoted under such an insistent guise of virtue or importance, that protecting it has become imperative over even the integrity of science itself. An invalid null hypothesis or a preferred idea inside a social epistemology. A hypothesis which is defined to end deliberation without due scientific rigor, alternative study consensus or is afforded unmerited protection or assignment as the null. The surreptitiously held and promoted idea or the hypothesis protected by an Inverse Negation Fallacy. Often one which is promoted as true by default, with the knowledge in mind that falsification will be very hard or next to impossible to achieve.

The Omega Hypothesis is enacted and supported through the following Tower of Wrong elements (Wittgenstein sinnlos) and the four Wittgenstein sinnlos Mechanisms. As a note: The definition I have crafted here for sinnlos, develops the concept into a more clear and complete fit in terms of today’s methods of misinformation – rather than solely its classic Wittgenstein framing as ‘senseless’, which overlaps too heavily inside English as opposed to German usage lexicons with his unsinnig ‘nonsense’ class of proposition. In addition I have taken the concept of sinnlos and applied it into the following four stack elements (Ambiguity, Organic Untruth, Inadequacy and Mechanism) which function to underpin a professional lie. The final elements are four mechanisms which are exercised by the most prolific, celebrity, power holding and habitual appeal-to-authority enactors of the professional lie.

Wittgenstein Epistemological Error (Proposition Framings) – the categorization of a proposition into meaninglessness, nonsense or uselessness based upon its underlying state or lacking of definition, structure, logical calculus or usefulness in addressing a logical critical path.

bedeutungslos – meaningless. A proposition or question which resides upon a lack of definition, or which contains no meaning in and of its self.

unsinnig – nonsense. A proposition of compromised coherency. Feynman ‘not even wrong.’

sinnlos – mis-sense. A contention which does not follow from the evidence, is correct at face value but disinformative or is otherwise useless.

Ambiguity

Equivocation – the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning, sense, or use in professional context by glossing over which meaning is intended in the instance of usage, in order to mis-define, inappropriately include or exclude data in an argument.

Proxy Equivocation – the forcing of a new or disliked concept or term, into the definition of an older context, concept or term, in order to avoid allowing discrete attention to be provided to the new concept or term. Often practiced through calling the new concept/term, falsely, a neologism or brush off with the statement ‘that idea has already been addressed.’

Ambiguity – the construction or delivery of a message in such words or fashion as to allow for several reasonable interpretations of the context, object, subject, relationship, material or backing of the intended message.

Slack Exploitation – a form of equivocation or rhetoric wherein an arguer employs a term which at face value appears to constrain the discussion or position contended to a specific definition or domain. However, a purposely chosen word or domain has been employed which allows for several different forms/domains of interpretation of the contention on the part of the arguer. Often this allows the arguer to petition the listener to infer a more acceptable version of his contention, when in fact he is asserting what he knows to be a less acceptable form of it.

Uti Dolo (trick question) – a question which is formed for the primary purpose of misleading a person into selecting (through their inference and/or questioner’s implication) the incorrect answer or answer not preferred inside a slack exploited play of ambiguity, interpretation, sequence, context or meaning. The strong version being where the wrong context is inferred by means of deceptive question delivery; the weak version being where the question is posed inside a slack domain where it can be interpreted legitimately in each of two different ways – each producing a differing answer.

Amphibology – a situation where a sentence may be interpreted in more than one way due to ambiguous sentence structure. An amphibology is permissible, but not preferable, only if all of its various interpretations are simultaneously and organically true.

Context Dancing – the twisting of the context inside which a quotation or idea has been expressed such that it appears to support a separate argument and inappropriately promote a desired specific outcome.

Wittgenstein Error – manipulation of definitions, or the lack thereof.

Descriptive – the inability to discuss, observe or measure a proposition or contention, because of a language limitation, which has limited discourse and not in reality science’s domain of observability.

Contextual – employment of words in such as fashion as to craft rhetoric, in the form of persuasive or semantic abuse, by means of shift in word or concept definition by emphasis, modifier, employment or context.

Accent Drift – a specific type of ambiguity that arises when the meaning or level of hyperbole of a sentence is changed by placing an unusual prosodic stress (emphasis on a word), or when, in a written passage, it’s left unclear which word the emphasis was supposed to fall on.²

Subject Ambiguity – the construction or delivery of a message in such words or fashion as to allow for several reasonable interpretations of person, place or thing to which the message applies.

Organic Untruth

Organic Untruth (verum mendacium) – a constructive form of argument which exploits concealed ambiguity or altered premise as the core of its foundational structure. A statement which is true at face value, but was not true or was of unknown verity under the time frame or original basis, soundness, domain or context under discussion. Ignoratio elenchi is a misdirection in argument, whereas an ingens vanitatum argument is a method of lying through this same misdrection or misleading set of ‘true facts’.

Not a Logical Truth – It is not that this type of statement is false. The basis of this type of assertion may even reside in scientific validity, or may be only categorically true – i.e. only true if given a specific set of circumstances. However the statement is not a logical truth – a truth of syllogism which is comprehensive, unqualified and unequivocal. Logical truth is the state of syllogism which a deceitful person is wishing for you to infer when they state a categorical truth, yet do not specify its conditions. It is a means of lying through stating something which is only conditionally accurate – hoping that their victim will accept the statement as one which addresses all circumstance.

Ingens Vanitatum Argument – citing a great deal of expert irrelevance. A posing of ‘fact’ or ‘evidence’ framed inside an appeal to expertise, which is correct and relevant information at face value; however which serves to dis-inform as to the nature of the argument being vetted or the critical evidence or question being asked.

Lob & Slam Ploy – a version of good cop/bad cop wherein a virtual partnership exists between well known fake news ‘satire’ news outlets, and so called ‘fact checkers’ media patrols. The fake news is generated and posed to the web as satire, subsequently stripped of its context by a third party, and then inserted into social media as true – whereupon it is virally circulated. Subsequently, ‘fact checking’ agencies are then alerted to this set up (the Lob), and then slam home the idea of the fake nature of the ‘news’, as well as the lack of credibility and gullible nature of those who passed it around through social media. This in itself is a fake ploy, a form a Fake-Hoaxing and Hoax Baiting practiced by social agenda forces seeking to artificially enhance the credibility of a news ‘fact checker’.

Praedicate Evidentia – any of several forms of exaggeration or avoidance in qualifying a lack of evidence, logical calculus or soundness inside an argument. A trick of preemptive false-inference, which is usually issued in the form of a circular reasoning along the lines of ‘it should not be studied, because study will prove that it is false, therefore it should not be studied’ or ‘if it were true, it would have been studied’.

Praedicate Evidentia – hyperbole in extrapolating or overestimating the gravitas of evidence supporting a specific claim, when only one examination of merit has been conducted, insufficient hypothesis reduction has been performed on the topic, a plurality of data exists but few questions have been asked, few dissenting or negative studies have been published, or few or no such studies have indeed been conducted at all.

Praedicate Evidentia Modus Ponens – any form of argument which claims a proposition consequent ‘Q’, which also features a lack of qualifying modus ponens, ‘If P then’ premise in its expression – rather, implying ‘If P then’ as its qualifying antecedent. This as a means of surreptitiously avoiding a lack of soundness or lack of logical calculus inside that argument; and moreover, enforcing only its conclusion ‘Q’ instead. A ‘There is not evidence for…’ claim made inside a condition of little study or full absence of any study whatsoever.

Inadequacy

tree-of-knowledge-obfuscation-smThe entire core of fallacy, crooked thinking and misrepresentation of Data, Method, Science, Argument and Assumption which is reflected inside the Tree of Knowledge Obfuscation as it pertains to a subject. This is paired as it pertains to persons with misrepresentation of Opponents, Semantics, Groups, Self and Authorities.

Any condition where a conclusion is chosen to be drawn from, or the science is regarded as settled under, a less than satisfactory representation, possession or understanding of the available evidence or under a condition where the available evidence does not satisfactorily provide for a basis of understanding, null hypothesis, Ockham’s Razor plurality, or alternative formulation (as in arguing M Theory).

Mechanism (of Social Lying)

Einfach Mechanism – an explanation, theory or idea which resolves a contention under the scientific method solely by means of the strength of the idea itself. An idea which is not vetted by the rigor of falsification, predictive consilience nor mathematical derivation, rather is simply considered such a strong or Occam’s Razor (sic) simple an idea that the issue is closed as finished science from its proposition and acceptance onward. An einfach mechanism may or may not be existentially true.

Imposterlösung Mechanism – the cheater’s answer. Employing the trick of pretending that an argument domain which does not bear coherency nor soundness – somehow (in violation of science and logic) falsely merits assignment of a ‘null hypothesis’. Moreover, then that null hypothesis must be assumed sans any real form or context of evidence, or Bayesian science cannot be accomplished. Finally then, that a null hypothesis is therefore regarded by the scientific community as ‘true’ until proved otherwise. A 1, 2, 3 trick of developing supposed scientifically accepted theory which in reality bears no real epistemological, logical, predicate structure nor scientific method basis whatsoever.

Höchste Mechanism – when a position or practice, purported to be of scientific basis, is elevated to such importance that removing the rights of professionals and citizens to dissent, speak, organize or disagree (among other rights) is justified in order to protect the position or the practice inside society.

Entscheiden Mechanism – the pseudoscientific or tyrannical approach of, when faced with epistemology which is heading in an undesired direction, artificially declaring under a condition of praedicate evidentia, the science as ‘settled’.

Skulptur Mechanism – the pseudoscientific method of treating evidence as a work of sculpture. Methodical inverse negation techniques employed to dismiss data, block research, obfuscate science and constrain ideas such that what remains is the conclusion one sought in the first place. A common tactic of those who boast of all their thoughts being ‘evidence based’. The tendency to view a logical razor as a device which is employed to ‘slice off’ unwanted data (evidence sculpting tool), rather than as a cutting tool (pharmacist’s cutting and partitioning razor) which divides philosophically valid and relevant constructs from their converse.

Verdrängung Mechanism – the level of control and idea displacement achieved through skillful employment of the duality between pluralistic ignorance and the Lindy Effect. The longer a control-minded group can sustain an Omega Hypothesis perception by means of the tactics and power protocols of proactive pluralistic ignorance, the greater future acceptability and lifespan that idea will possess. As well, the harder it will to be dethrone as an accepted norm or perception as a ‘proved’ null hypothesis.

This wiggle room between what is considered to be ‘correct’ and what is indeed true-informing, resides at the heart of the 50 Shades of Correct. As you make your journey past the confused, deluded and lying members of our society, this mental framework is useful in vetting those who are interested in pushing agendas, from those who are keenly and openly interested in the truth.

epoché vanguards gnosis


¹  Politifact, “Hillary Clinton says none of her emails had classification headers,” Lauren Carroll, ; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/07/hillary-clinton/clinton-says-none-her-emails-were-labeled-top-secr/

²  Executive Order 13526- Classified National Security Information/National Security Act

An Internet Pre-filtered by Authorized Knowledge is a Mistake

Google rankings, rather than misleadingly being based upon how many profit producing Knowledge Vault ‘facts’ a site can dredge up, should instead hinge upon a site’s degree of original thinking, publicly valuable content, lack of profit seeking and ethic of providing first hand/active field research based information. We should not fear a plurality of information, because in the end, incorrect information is much more informative than partially correct regurgitated facts. The latter is ‘not even wrong.’

facts are undeniableMuch akin to null result discovery in scientific testing, incorrect information falsifies itself through accrued verity and research. It does not last forever. And in its falsification, the process of knowledge development becomes extraordinarily informative, not simply about the nature and intent of those who hoax and lie inside an issue, but as well lesser-known aspects of the true story, interleaved inside unauthorized forums which seldom surface. The enforcement of partially correct authorized answers is the antithesis of sound investigation. Stored in vaults of fact-vomit dogma, repositories no longer able to discern lies from truth, they ossify and serve to scaffold a surreptitiously misleading gospel. Many times having never been vetted by science at all, rather simply a representation of someone’s idea of what they want science to be. The neutral witness learns nothing but a canned answer. Google, do not betray us. All information is subject to challenge, especially in arenas where substantiative debate exists. Do not let these people take power through the authorization of what is considered fact. They are not benign in their intentions. There are fact repositories we can all access and there are popular resource topics which arise – and the users determine which they need when. Do not let these people ‘fix’ this.

The end of freedom

“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.”
     ― Bruce Coville
 Fact-Vomit Fraud is a SSkeptical Art

Google takes controlA nightmare in the making for a constitutionally driven people and nation.  Determining Google query rankings by ‘facts’ contained in the website drawn from a central reserve, Knowledge Vault, will serve only to put ONE group in power over information.  One of the tactics available for ‘correct thinking’ and SSkeptic websites will now be to regurgitate endless facts, in an effort to up their ranking over sites which offer observations, new data, and new ideas.  This will end in tyranny of information through fact-vomit fraud.  Much akin to how spam messages work their way through the sensors by alternating a series of coherent sentences in order to appear as legitimate comments or emails.  Now forcing everyone to see only these sites saturated in irrelevant and in-cohesive facts might sound good to the shallow minded.  But to those who have witnessed first hand how corruption works through ‘authorized information’ – we recognize that this is not a benign act.¹

Your Thoughts and Ideas Were an Experiment that Failed

This principle, the concept that it is experimentally moral to change government and begin to remove ideas based on their ‘truth and reason’ content is no better expressed than by Michael Shermer himself; grand master of social morality and truth enforcement on the populace.  A product of religion himself, now spinning his new religion with a blood-thirst by which even Jerry Falwell would be awed.

If you want different results [government], change the variables. “The founders often spoke of the new nation as an ‘experiment,’” Ferris writes. “Procedurally, it involved deliberations about how to facilitate both liberty and order…” As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1804: “No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth.”†

~ Michael Shermer, The Work of Michael Shermer, Scientific American, Sept 2010.

We will note with the Cabal that, the only thing which will not be an experiment, is their power. That is absolute and unquestionable. They have made this clear.

Now it won’t just be the irritating ads which will fake answer your Google search – but as well, fact stuffed ‘knowledge’ sites who don’t even pay a fee, which also intercept your quest for information in an attempt to mislead. An Orwellian Utopia of correctness and scientific morals, which inevitably begins through the control of our interactions and media.

Paul is Dead - we will never knowWe already are witness to what About.com, Answers.com and Ask.com have done to prostitute the internet with top-of-the-list fake and incorrect answers to questions posed in a web engine search. The majority of the time when I ask a question in an arena inside of which I am an expert, variants of these three service questions are answered at the top of the web search list, and consist of incorrect, neophyte babble or are out of context. But at least these services are not dictating these answers as true.  This action bears the potential that incorrect, neophyte babble and out of context answers will become permanent authorized fixtures in the social memory.

In the 1970’s, SSkeptics attempted to squelch rumors of an early 1900’s unimaginably large explosion over Siberia. I remember the articles decrying those who pondered the potentiality as alien theorists and believers of bunk. Today we know the Tunguska Impact to exist as a well documented fact.  But in 1972, it was a popular SSkeptic whipping dog issue. There was no such thing. ‘Fact’ based websites, as such, were deployed into the major media networks. The only way to hear about Tunguska research articles were in rogue publications such as Argosy and Omni magazines.  We were lied to regularly and with impunity. This will happen again.

Not every issue is so readily resolvable as was the Tunguska Impact. Let’s not let the 1950’s style of Official Media Information gain another foothold on our information and our minds.

And just who will determine the relevancy of the “facts” presented on each high ranked site? Who will be populating this reserve of authorized knowledge? The CIA World Factbook? When I travel into countries where I am on the ground working with relief agencies and governments, I find their information to be consistently incorrect.  Ministries chuckle at the inaccuracies in some cases. Will I be able to correct this information in the Knowledge Vault? And if my direct observation runs afoul of the CIA World Factbook/Knowledge Vault information – will my website be forced to the bottom of hundreds of noise-sites, replete with fake ‘facts?’ All for the simple audacity to actually hold a truthful but lesser known direct observation?  Again with Wikipedia, one who has first hand knowledge cannot correct errant information as it is.  When ‘factual information sites’ appear that present lies about people, issues and businesses – will they be accepted as a fact simply because one has been approved to tender information (see AAAS and ‘War on Science’), and not because one has direct knowledge of the subject, as is the practice of Wikipedia now?

What if I want to know the evidence behind a cult understanding of a phenomenon, and not just hear the regurgitated ‘facts’ from The Skeptic’s Dictionary, spinning a brick wall from three bricks and some spit? I don’t want to have to step to result #987 because the search result has been corrupted by hundreds of fake sites reciting canned authorized ‘facts’ – all replications without recitation of each other.

The information will simply not be good enough. The people are simply not ethical enough.¹ The method simply too prone to Social Skeptic manipulation – to take this totalitarian step on managing what can and cannot be seen – what is promoted as truth along with the paid ads.  Yes, keep vaults of authorized knowledge and let us know how to get to them, but don’t start squelching information which does not fit the model it supposedly portrays.

On matters of well established science and cultural data it is fine to keep information repositories and highlight them.  But we already have a multiplicity of these sites on the internet. As well, we already have the bullies patrolling and posing as skeptics spinning extrapolated and fake science off scant ‘facts.’ We have seen this now with Wikipedia, blocking first hand information in favor of information from authorized activist sources seeking to dominate a topic. The victims of this ‘truth’ will be controversial and challenging subjects against which Social Skeptics and their cronies will petition and threaten Google and its partners to squelch. That precedent is well established.

And soon, when will the supposed ‘facts’ begin to bleed into the Knowledge Vault to impugn you, your career, your business, your faith, your neighbors and your family?  This precedent, the cheat, the corrupt fakery of showing authorized information is well established with respect to Google.¹ Not long after Social Skepticism takes power – anyone who disagrees with them will be eviscerated on the web. And if there exists any evidence which does not agree with their defamation, it will never be seen. Notice here, two case examples where existing Google Knowledge Graph mistaken representations impacted two businesses with potentially severe repercussions on their branding strength. Now these were accidents which were immediately corrected by Google and were spun into case anecdote justifications for the trustworthiness of Google. Well Google may or may not be trustworthy, but those who will be able to manipulate this process, have proved themselves to lack intellectual integrity, adorned with facts; tendering the appearance of correctness in order to damage and harm people and squelch topics.

Should Google begin this style of ranking with impunity, and in service partnership with Social Skepticism, I will no longer use their search engine, nor attempt to rank or register my professional and commercial websites with them. They will have betrayed us all. I will support search engines which promote the freedom of information, only. We already have ample propaganda and ‘correct thinking’ sites on the internet.

As an ethical skeptic I want information which challenges norms and provides more than simply the authorized facts. That is part of my makeup as a skeptic. Truth comes through the accrual and vetting of facts, not through the squelching of information.  One cannot live in fear of incorrectness. Incorrect information is much more informative than partially correct information. The latter is ‘not even wrong.’

Living the Dream – Profits from Promulgating Authorized Facts

global social warming 4It’s not that I believe that Paul McCartney is dead.  I do not. But what if I want to examine that information or recent news about such issues? – and apply that skeptical and rational thinking about which Social Skeptics speak so much? I shudder at the prospect of receiving a search engine result like the one above, on all subjects of controversy (which is 80% accurate to reality now). I want to know the arguments from both sides without spin, fact vomit and agenda. I do not care in the least what Wikipedia and The Skeptic’s Dictionary have concluded about the topic. They have not conducted first hand research, they do not contain original ideas, nor are they free to frame the issue objectively – both serving higher order masters who already possess the answer/the facts.  Steven Novella, in his March 2, 2015 blog opines in pseudo parsimony and through crocodile tears:²

Novella on Knowledge Vault

This prospect already has Social Skeptics drooling, as they know exactly what to do in order to take advantage of what could turn out to be a big mistake. Steven knows this, and anticipates it with relish.  What he misses however, is that this totalitarian control of information and direction towards authorized correct resources – when used to further partner enterprises – constitutes anti-trust violations in the US, and yes, even in Europe (see Europe Charges Google with Anti-trust Violations). One does not have to be a member of a corporation in order to be charged with Anti-trust activity on behalf of that corporation or its oligopoly.  SSkeptics, as well as Google, should remember this. Eliminating competition might seem a giddy intellectual exercise for the SSkeptic, but they forget that economies, jobs, families, livelihoods and futures ride on competitive businesses they attack with shallow data and agenda.  This is not just some academic back-office/parent’s basement contest to see who is smarter, as SSkeptics perceive their debates.

But for now, his media partners know this as well. Now those sites which will have paid Social Skeptics who are in control of how authorized information is gamed into SEO rankings (see The Wall Street Journal)³ in granting top Google search engine results slots, will be able to charge internet users for access to information, because such information is now blessed by Google and Social Skepticism. Below is an increasingly common page block, this one issued by The Economist, which tweets me articles and then asks me to pay regular money in order to see it. This is a great model for the future of correctness. Social Skeptics will achieve their dream of being compensated for sitting around doling out correct answers. Their celebrities exemplify this as role models now.

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I suppose the only saving grace might be embodied inside this dilemma, will the market bear the price for authorized information, or will ‘free’ information turn out to be a more value laden deal?  Who possesses more value, a layman sponsor conducting actual field observations, or a tenured academic pontificating from his university/institute office chair? I would not be willing to pay money for the latter. As well Google has had the front row seat witnessing the chicanery which has gone on inside the SEO market in regard to artificial jockeying of search rankings among players looking to make profits currently from being ‘page 1.’ Finally, there are a number of true skeptics at Google as a result of this, so the imposition of power through domination of authorized information, might constitute a bigger challenge for Social Skeptics than they are anticipating. Social Skeptics, if Google is ethical, incorrectly assume that this move will tender them complete and final control of information, as well as a potential profit stream.

Google, your seminal mantra was ‘Don’t be evil.’ Don’t work to filter information through homage to the Knowledge Vault. Apply your skepticism about the power of authority, and yes, even skeptics.


¹  “How Google Skewed Search Results: FTC staff report details how Google favored its own shopping, travel services over rivals;” The Wall Street Journal, Rolfe Winkler and Brody Mullins, March 19, 2015.

²  NeuroLogica, “Google Wants to Rank Sites for Trustworthiness” Mar 2, 2015.

³  “Inside the U.S. Antitrust Probe of Google: Key FTC staff wanted to sue Internet giant after finding ‘real harm to consumers and to innovation;” The Wall Street Journal, Rolfe Winkler and Brody Mullins, March 19, 2015.

†  “Democracy’s Laboratory,” The Work of Michael Shermer, September 2010; Scientific American; http://www.michaelshermer.com/2010/09/democracys-laboratory/