The following is The Ethical Skeptic’s list, useful in spotting both formal and informal logical fallacies, cognitive biases, statistical broaches and styles of crooked thinking on the part of those in the Social Skepticism movement. It is categorized by employment groupings so that it can function as a context appropriate resource in a critical review of an essay, imperious diatribe or publication by a thought enforcing Social Skeptic. To assist this, we have comprised the list inside an intuitive taxonomy of ten contextual categories of mischaracterization/misrepresentation:

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Misrepresentation of Self (Appeal to Skepticism)

a corps perdu – the principle of differentiating trust between two types of madman. Which madman do you trust? One who has succumbed to his impulse a corps perdu, expressing such prejudice generously inside the authority of his intimate knowledge of the mind of an infinite omni-being or even absensus based science, unquestionably promulgated and escalated by his fellows, or one who has recognized and surrendered his madness to the not sufficient, but necessary evidence at hand; being measured and compassionate in his compunction towards imparting risk upon his fellow madmen? It is sophistry only, to promote the former madness as ethical. (See intra ludio, or ‘the telltale of the inside actor’)

Acceptance Pleading – a form of special pleading or resignation through conflating acceptance of the reality of a personal circumstance or injury we cannot change, and making the most of life despite it – with acceptance of the ongoing societal mechanisms, ignorance and corrupt practices which caused the circumstance or injury in the first place.

ad injuriam – appeal to injury. When you can’t refute someone’s work, so instead you hire trolls to threaten a person’s career, reputation, and/or family.

ad stalkinem – a focus on the opposing person in a debate, to such an extreme that the ad hominem party also begins to stalk or obsess over that person – through a continuous critique by means of meaningless rhetorical statements, and/or by delving into their personal life in a disturbed and inappropriate manner. Typically, the imbalance here suggests that the stalker never comprehended nor was really interested in the subject being debated in the first place.

ad verecundiam – accepting as evidence for a proposition the pronouncement of someone who is taken to be an authority but is not really an authority. This can happen when non-experts parade as experts in fields in which they have no special competence.

aeunoia – parsimony, humility and reasoned balance adopted simply as a form of rhetoric; appearances adopted merely to underpin persuasion of an audience. A position calmly spun as representing science, rationality or ‘where the facts lead’, typically belied by the enormous amount of unknown inside a subject field or the lack of true knowledge held by the virtue signally aeunoia practitioner.

Affectation of Science – an effort to appear to have a quality or understanding of science not really or fully possessed.

afto anaforás Appeal – appeal to self reference. A form of posturing and prevarication on the part of a person who regards disagreement with them as constituting a personal attack upon them. If one habitually fails to be able to separate an opponent’s argument from the opponent them self, this is an indicator that one is not skilled in developing an argument separate from one’s own self either. A key indicator of fully entrenched religious beliefs. Many positions held by such an arguer will stem from selfish and emotional origins, as opposed to objective inference. Counterarguments will often be punctuated with a change in inflection to ad hominem as the closing remark inside each successive set of discourse. A gradual shift will occur in their focus from the argument at hand, to a focus upon the person whom they are arguing with, starting initially with gentle aspersions or backhanded/insincere compliments, thereafter growing to flat out insults as the discussion continues – hoping to provoke their opponent into escalating the ad hominem. Often this appellant could care less about the topic/argument in reality – they are just out to embarrass someone they dislike.

Agency – an activated, intentional and methodical form of bias, often generated by organization, membership, politics, hate or fear based agenda and disdain. Agency and bias are two different things. Ironically, agency can even tender the appearance of mitigating bias, as a method of its very insistence. Agency is different from either conflict of interest or bias. It is actually stronger than either, and more important in its detection. Especially when a denial is involved, the incentive to double-down on that denial, in order to preserve office, income or celebrity – is larger than either bias or nominal conflict of interest. One common but special form of agency, is the condition wherein it is concealed, and expresses through a denial/inverse negation masquerade called ideam tutela. When such agency is not concealed it may be call tendentiousness.

ideam tutela – concealed agency. A questionable idea or religious belief which is surreptitiously promoted through an inverse negation. A position which is concealed by an arguer because of their inability to defend it, yet is protected at all costs without its mention – often through attacking without sound basis, every other form of opposing idea.

Tendentious – showing agency towards a particular point of view, especially around which there is serious disagreement in the at-large population. The root is the word ‘tendency’, which means ‘an inclination toward acting a certain way.’ A tendentious person holds their position from a compulsion which they cannot overcome through objective evaluation. One cannot be reasoned out of, a position which they did not reason themselves into to begin with.

Ahab’s Axiom – axiom which goes “The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser.” Muttered by Captain Ahab in Melville’s Moby Dick, while observing the Manxman scolding the cabin boy, Pip during a breakage in the ship’s speed log line and reel. A symptom of imbalance in ability to judge or be circumspect, is a habit of incessant scolding targeting one individual.

Akratic Trolling – when an advocate of an agenda plays the game wherein they will troll and provoke their perceived enemy, then suddenly retreat into the pure technical of science or atheism and adopt a holy or statesman facade when the perceived enemy objects to their behavior.

Anomie – a condition in which a club, group or society provides little or negative ethical guidance to the individuals which inhabit it or craft its direction.​

Anosognosia – a deficit of self awareness. A vulnerability to a sales pitch involving the ‘stupid’ versus us, on the part of those who see themselves as superior minded. This relates to the complex intricacies involving intelligence and rationality; a perception spun on the part of social skeptics which is wielded to seek compliance and social enforcement of their goals.

Antagonogenic – causing benefit as a result of or while in the process of intent to cause harm. A hacker who ironically ends up improving systems security. A leftist who influences younger generations to oppose his group, because of hate filled actions in the name of thinly-veiled virtue.

aphronêsis – twisted, extreme, ill timed, misconstrued, obtuse or misapplied wisdom, sometimes even considered correct under different contexts of usage – which allow an agenda holder to put on a display of pretend science, rationality and skepticism. The faking skeptic will trumpet loudly and often about the scientific method, evidence, facts, ‘skepticism’ or peer review, but somehow will never seem to be able to apply those principles, nor cite accurate examples of their application. The faking skeptic will speak often of ‘demanding proof,’ deny sponsors access to challenge ideas or fiat science, and incorrectly cite that denial of access to peer review is indeed – peer review. You will find them endlessly spouting incorrect phrases like ‘the burden of proof resides on the claimant’; its symbolic evisceration standing as de facto proof of their own beliefs. Vehement skeptics tend to be young and only academically/socially trained to a great degree – their ‘skepticism’ easing most of the time as they gain life experience. ‘Proof’ is the hallmark of religion. ~Bill Gaede

Apparatchik – the opposite of being a skeptic. A blindly devoted official, follower, or organization member, of a corporation, club or political party. One who either ignorantly or obdurately lacks any concern or circumspection ability which might prompt them to examine the harm their position may serve to cause.

Appeal to Authority Tell – a person who conceals a reliance upon appeal to authority will get particularly indignant when a ‘lesser ranked’ person with actual direct, deep and expert experience tells them they are wrong, or offers a differing view than what they were promulgating as truth.

Appeal to Class (Class Warfare) – using the excuse of helping lower disadvantaged strata of society as justification for one’s perfidious actions in harming everyone else or establishing power. The pretense that one’s political agendas are undertaken to help minorities, refugees or the poor, when in reality such actions more concern building power and attacking those a person hates. The pitting of class against class in order to work as a smokescreen and power mitigation tactic, inside surreptitious efforts to establish control.

Appeal to Skepticism (Fallacy of Irrelevance)

ergo sum veritas Fallacy (of Irrelevance)

1′ (strong).  The assumption that because one or one’s organization is acting in the name of skepticism or science, that such a self claimed position affords that organization and/or its members exemption from defamation, business tampering, fraud, privacy, stalking, harassment and tortious interference laws.

1a.  The contention, implication or inference that one’s own ideas or the ideas of others hold authoritative or evidence based veracity simply because their proponent has declared themselves to be a ‘skeptic.’

1b.  The assumption, implication or inference that an organization bearing a form of title regarding skepticism immediately holds de facto unquestionable factual or ideological credibility over any other entity having conducted an equivalent level of research into a matter at hand.

1c.  The assumption, implication or inference that an organization or individual bearing a form of title regarding skepticism, adheres to a higher level of professionalism, ethics or morality than does the general population.

Appeal to Skepticism (Fallacy of Irrelevance)

2a.  The declaration, assumption or implication that a consensus skeptical position on a topic is congruent with the consensus opinion of scientists on that topic.

2b.  The argument assumption or implication that an opinion possesses authoritative veracity or a proponent possesses intellectual high ground simply through allegiance to a consensus skeptical position on a topic.

3.   The presumption or contention that taking a denial based or default dubious stance on a set of evidence or topic is somehow indicative of application of the scientific method on one’s part, or constitutes a position of superior intellect, or represents a superior critical or rational position on a topic at hand.

Inverse Negation Fallacy – The asymmetrical strategy of promoting an idea through negation of all its antithetical concepts. A method of undermining any study, proponent, media byte, article, construct, data, observation, effort or idea which does not fit one’s favored model, in a surreptitious effort to promote that favored model, along with its implicit but not acknowledged underpinning claims, without tendering the appearance of doing so; nor undertaking the risk of exposing that favored model or claims set to the scientific method or to risky critical scrutiny.

Truzzi Fallacy – The presumption that a position of skepticism or plausible conformance on a specific issue affords the skeptical apologist tacit exemption from having to provide authoritative outsider recitation or evidence to support a contended claim or counter-claim. “Pseudo-Skeptics: Critics who assert negative claims, but who mistakenly call themselves ‘skeptics,’ often act as though they have no burden of proof placed on them at all. A result of this is that many critics seem to feel it is only necessary to present a case for their counter-claims based upon plausibility rather than empirical evidence.”  – Marcello Truzzi (Founding Co-chairman of CSICOP)

Richeliean Appeal to Skepticism – an inflation of personal gravitas, celebrity or influence by means of implicit or explicit threats of coercive tactics which can harm a victim one wishes to be silenced. Coercive tactics include threats to harm family, contact employers, tamper with businesses, employment of celebrity status to conduct defamation activities or actions to defraud, or otherwise cause harm to persons, reputation or property. This includes the circumstance where a Richeliean skeptic encourages and enjoys a form of ‘social peer review,’ empowered via politics or a set of sycophants who are willing to enact harm to a level which the Richeliean power holder himself would not personally stoop.

Argument from Self-Knowing – if P were true or false then I would know it as a skeptic; in fact I do not know it; therefore P cannot be true or false.

Argument from Silence – the pretense that the exhibiting of silence on one’s part is somehow indicative of higher intellect, ethics, rationality or knowledge and skill regarding a topic at hand.

atéchne – a misconstruing of fact and method. Pretenses of false science and skepticism, portrayed by faking skeptics and social agenda apparatchiks. An inventory of fake methods, such as Occam’s Razor, anecdote dismissal, assailing the facts, dismissing eyewitness testimony, informal fallacy, etc.; all of which are abused, misapplied or are indeed not applicable at all to the subject or research under consideration.

Attribution Bias – when one considers the traits of another to stem from situational factors that may affect a person’s behavior as opposed to dispositional factors; yet views their own traits as stemming from chiefly dispositional factors.

Authority Credulist – the opposite of a conspiracy theorist, but even worse in terms of harm imparted. Believes authority with very little question. Vulnerable to and often exploited by authorized propaganda outlets, through bearing an abject weakness in ability to grasp asymmetry, spot patterns or develop intelligence. Seeks to be an agent which foments conflict between what they view as authority, and everyone who disagrees.

autoaufheben appeal – a doubled meaning or self-canceling argument: it means both to cancel (or negate) and to preserve at the same time. A form of rhetorical argument which serves to cancel itself through apologetic issued simultaneously with its primary claim. A person who says they are not a thief, while simultaneously demanding money from you at knifepoint.

Beatles Effect – people who rise through their career having not served in a supporting role, in too fast a progression, or are assigned celebrity without substantive merit – these individuals will often exhibit a cruelty in their leadership, selfishness, or an inability to get along with peers, which expresses as a knee-jerk desire to denigrate subjects and persons, without adequate underpinning research.

Benford’s Law of Controversy – passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.

Bergson’s Razor – one sign that an arguer or opponent does not really understand nor care about the argument at hand or that they secretly doubt their own argument elements. This can be found inside the tactic of a discrediting refutation or disputation incorporating a multiplicity of approaches and reasons as its basis. In this case, either the opponent did not understand that only one counter is required to refute an argument, if done properly; or they did not really believe their counter point in the first place, or were only seeking to personally embarrass or discredit their opponent – and not really dialectic the issue at hand.

Bias Blind Spot – the tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases and faults in others than in oneself.

Bien Pensant – the clique of those who are deluded into viewing their educational degree or ability to ‘think rationally’ as constituting a just basis for social controls resulting in their favor. A right-thinking or orthodox person.

bildungsphilister – a philistine possessed of a facile, cosmetic culture. Someone who reads articles and reviews and imagines themselves to be cultured and educated but lacks genuine, critical or introspective erudition. Nitzsche’s name for the pseudo-intellectual class of social activist. Bildungsphilisters are prone to dogmatic, cliched, and unsubtle responses to events and things. An activist who sees a majority vote which goes their way as ‘democracy’ and one which does not as ‘populism’. One who sees arguments which indicate their view, as being scientific, and those which do not, as pseudoscientific. Political and scientific constructs are mere artifices to be used and cast aside when not to their advantage. They wallow in rhetoric, apothegm and bear the inability to discern sophistry; vulnerable yet to it.  A member of social skepticism or Nassim Taleb’s Intellectual Yet Idiot (IYI) class.

Blame – an expressed and dysfunctional absence of responsibility, which demonstrates an intellectual/spiritual deficit of awareness of the distinction between the two principles.

Bolt’s Axiom – a belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind. Attributed to Robert Oxton Bolt, English Playwright.

bonus sive malum – a condition of Nelsonian ignorance, willful blindness or other circumstance of low information/diligence wherein inaction in addressing an error/shortfall or skepticism in its regard – serve to render incompetence as indistinguishable from professional malfeasance. There is no such thing as Hanlon’s Razor with national strategy for example. When it comes to human rights and the role of government, an absence of diligence is indistinguishable from malice. A limit/boundary to Hanlon’s Razor. Also known as the ‘Hanlon lived a sheltered life’ axiom.

Bowel Movement Authority – one who makes a claim to evidence, expertise, authority, ability to argue or skepticism, inside a subject or bearing a knowledge base, in which every other reasonable person also has direct and regular personal expertise.  Don’t come to me claiming that your skepticism qualifies you to argue a subject – that is like claiming to be an authority in bowel movements.

The Bricklayer’s Error – the presumption that academic, heuristic or deep single-function expertise (bricklaying) qualify one to stand as authority as to how the broader issue is to be managed (house is to be built or lived-in). Experience trumps consilience. Consilience trumps heuristic.

Buchwissen – (book knowledge) the opposite end of the spectrum from an autodidact. A person who possesses scant or zero ability in original thinking, does not possess the gravitas necessary to assemble a logical calculus nor establish a set of sound conjecture from the substance of what they have learned under an academic context.

Carrying Someone’s Water – a fake skeptic who is surreptitiously doing someone’s bidding or serving someone’s interests, with or without their complete awareness of so doing.

Casuistry – the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; sophistry. Daisy chaining contentions which lead to a preferred moral outcome, by means of the equivocal use of the words within them unfolding into an apparent logical calculus – sometimes even done in a humorous, ironic or mocking manner. A type of sophistry.

Catalyseur – a conflict exploitation specialist, or any entity which stands to gain under the outcome of a lose-lose conflict scenario which they have served to create, abet or foment. Someone who acts as a third party to two sides in an argument or conflict, who advises about the ‘truth’ of the other party involved, respectively and urges an escalation of factors which drove the conflict to begin with.

Celebrity Conflict of Interest – an extreme form of epistemic anchoring or a priori bias which is introduced through a proponent’s desire to attain or maintain their celebrity status. Celebrity skeptics, pseudo-sleuths and science communicators may not even perceive that their epistemology is being imbued with a bias which tends to produce answers which favor continuation of their acceptability, club status, notoriety or income. This is the most extreme form of self inflicted coercion, ranking even above a scientific study author’s financial conflict of interest.

Channel Knowledge Flag – a skeptic who has learned their skepticism from a skeptic clique, is not one. An atheist who has learned atheism from only atheists, is not one. One who gains understanding from a single source, does not understand.

Charitable Credential Pretense – when making charitable events and promotions a visible part of one’s skeptic persona in order to deflect criticism and increase perceived personal gravitas inside targeted subjects.

Choice Supportive Bias – the tendency to remember one’s choices and professional judgement as more educated or accurate than they actually were.

Chucklehead Diversion – when using humor or mocking of others as a facade of appearing objective or to conceal the underlying message one is passing as not being threatening, serious or malicious in nature, when such an implication is false. Typically employed as well as a defensive lever posture of allowing accusation of any criticism bearer as needing to ‘lighten up” since they have not used humor to belie their agenda.

Clifford’s Law/Axiom – a belief is never benign. “No real belief, however trifling and fragmentary it may seem, is ever truly insignificant; it prepares us to receive more of its like, confirms those which resembled it before, and weakens others ~William Kingdon Clifford

Clique Rank Flag – if you gain your understanding from a inside a clique, you are at the bottom of that clique. Celebrity then, is your only recourse.

Close-Hold Embargo – is a common form of dominance lever exerted by scientific and government agencies to control the behavior of the science press. In this model of coercion, a governmental agency or scientific entity offers a media outlet the chance to get the first or most in-depth scoop on an important new ruling, result or disposition – however, only under the condition that the media outlet not seek any dissenting input, nor critically question the decree, nor seek its originating authors for in-depth query.

Closet Coast Fan – a person who loudly and visibly decries a litany of subjects in order to be accepted by fellow false skeptics, but secretly listens to paranormal talk radio and watches ghost hunter and UFO programming religiously.

Coincidence Theory/Theorist – the reactionary theory of conformance or one who crafts such complicated and highly stacked ‘rational’ alternatives as to why an astounding observation can only be served by a conventional or conforming explanation. Usually comes with the adjunct claim that the exceptional observation cannot possibly exist since ‘it would require a conspiracy of X people, if indeed it were true.’ A form of sophistry and rhetoric used to defend a political or religious a priori assumption.

Commonality Error – the tip of hand accidentally committed by a faking skeptic when they bristle with disdain at consumers who are able to test their claims for accuracy in their own or home testing environments, and subsequently cite counter evidence to the skeptic’s contention.

Compartmentalization – the method employed by a person wishing to deceive them self, then subsequently others, by means of organizing their thoughts in such a way as to obscure data or truth regarding a matter. Equally, a method of organization relating to the structure of access to information; of categorizing data and practices into impotent silos and categories – no single one of which can service, impact or relate truth on its own accord. While a useful tactic in intelligence management circles, compartmentalization on the part of the human mind or organizations where transparency is of utmost importance is rarely employed to good ends. A focus on only clinical experiment at the exclusion of field observation, the blinders-on academic pretense of material monism or the division of a company’s fiscal accountability mechanisms in such a way as to hide profits or nefarious expenses, all these serve as methods which abrogate goals of clarity, truth and transparency.

Complexity Tell – some problems are so complex that one must be well informed, highly intelligent and skilled in abstract critical path thinking, just to hold neutrality or a suspension of disposition about them. Those who arrive at conclusions or implied conclusions through inverse negation, should be observed for what they are.

Compositional Exclusion – citing one’s lack of adherence to one tenet of a belief system, or a ludicrously or extremely portrayed component of belief held by a group, to stand quod erat demonstrandum that one is not a member of that group.

Corber’s Burden – the mantle of ethics undertaken when one claims the role of representing conclusive scientific truth, ascertained by means other than science, such as ‘rational thinking,’ ‘critical thinking,’ ‘common sense,’ or skeptical doubt. An authoritative claim or implication as to possessing knowledge of a complete set of that which is incorrect. The nature of such a claim to authority on one’s part demands that the skeptic who assumes such a role be 100% correct. If however, one cannot be assured of being 100% correct, then one must tender the similitude of such.

a. When one tenders an authoritative claim as to what is incorrect – one must be perfectly correct.

b. When a person or organization claims to be an authority on all that is bunk, their credibility decays in inverse exponential proportion to the number of subjects in which authority is claimed.

c. A sufficiently large or comprehensive set of claims to conclusive evidence in denial, is indistinguishable from an appeal to authority.

Corber’s Hypocrisy – a skeptic who dismisses a large set of specific subjects and who realizes that under Corber’s Burden they must be 100% correct in such a role – speaks often about ‘following the evidence’ or that they ‘withhold conclusion’ in a state of neutrality over such subjects – when indeed such claims of behavior are not the case at all in their habit or practice.

Crank’s Tell – when you create something, there will be two classes of people who observe it. Those who appreciate it for what it brings to them and then might ask a question or move on – and those who are threatened by it. The latter can be detected in that they will not focus on the material itself, and instead will gravitate quickly towards attacking the creator of the material. Everyone can see this, except for the crank them self, who mistakenly believes they are taken as part of the former group.

Crazemo – the process of being driven by, or a person who is driven by a crazed set of fleeting emotions and surface thinking regarding every new topic or turn in a set of events. A person driven by what on the surface appears to them to be virtuous – and is irrationally vehement and vocal, despite bearing little knowledge of the entailed subject. One who often chooses a position based upon who they hate, and which side they are on – and not in relation to the science nor evidence involved. Often this type of person will claim the name of science as a virtue and issue comments back to back which are in direct conflict or fail to be consistent with each other.

Credentialism – an implication or overemphasis on academic or educational qualifications (e.g., certificates, degrees & diplomas), awards or publications as the basis of an individual’s expertise or credibility.

Crier of the Gaps – a practice which has replaced the principle of ‘God of the Gaps’ solutions to systemic problems. Filling in and smoothing over gaps in information or understanding, through media intimidation, bravado and over-publication – as a means to defacto adjudicate/emasculate such gaps in understanding in the realm of public opinion, through jackboot ignorance, nonaganda and propaganda.

Critical Blindness – the conflation of a position of authority or influence with one’s presumed possession of a higher level of personal competence. The mental obstacle created in a person granted entitled authority before they are emotionally ready, wherein they lose their ability to create, to gracefully understand or value the dynamics of human nature, motivation and leadership; descending further into shallow and habitual negative or doubtful critical assessments of those ‘under’ or different from them, coupled with an ever growing hunger for absolute control.

The Critic’s Wager – aside from matters such as human rights, accountability of power, or potential harm, a principle which cites that one should practice restraint in explaining their resolution to a standing problem to a critic. A. If you do, they will find something wrong, as their emotions are invested in finding something flawed to begin with. Instead, ask them how they would approach the problem at hand. A1. If they hold the skills necessary in approaching the problem, odds are they will describe essentially the process you employed in the first place. If they propose something novel or creative, acknowledge and credit that added value or novel approach to them, and use it if applicable. A2. If they don’t bear the skill necessary or know how to approach the problem, then the question is broached – are they qualified to or should they then ethically critique its candidate solutions? This process sidesteps ignoratio elenchi, rhetorical, and ad hominem wastes of time.

Cryptical Thinking Fallacy – the false claim by SSkeptics that they practice scientific or critical investigatory method within a topic of discourse. False skeptics advertise this as a honed skill which affords their opinions equal weight with a scientist, or superior credibility over any layman, on any particular topic they wish to dominate and condemn.

culpant et victima – whenever a culprit is being concealed as to their introduction of a deleterious contribution, the victims will be assigned the blame for their handiwork.

Curmudgeonality Error – when one is often suspicious of or hostile towards new social trends.  Believing that one’s self is instead holding up the standard against a sense that values are slipping, or the world is suffering from spreading disrespect, irrationality or lowered set of standards.

Curse of Knowledge Effect – when better-informed people find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed people; or perceive that their burden of knowledge cannot be fathomed by lesser-capable people, rendering them unable to practice critical or evidence based thinking.

Cynical Blindness – the condition where a negare attentio affect becomes so pronounced, and a person so habituated to the methods of cynicism that they neither desire to, nor can they detect methods of cynicism in themselves and others they see as allies – immediately, without reflection denying that they are a cynic when queried.

Daedalean Identity – a practice of obscuring one’s allegiance or religious faith through complicated or equivocal nominal descriptives or segmentation of one’s beliefs into an array of apparently separate and intricate platform beliefs or movements.

Definition by Ergodicity – the mistake of the dilettante is to define an abstract principle by its ergodicity and not by its logical critical processes or elements. A key sign of lack of understanding.

Deliberately Obtuse – the act which a person puts on when they sense that a logical pathway may expose the weakness in their argument or are matched by an opponent who is better prepared or understands the subject to a level of skill which threatens their conclusion. A pretense of accusing the opponent of not being clear, of making pleonasm, or using a false analogy, when in fact the points being made are using concise, professional and accurate language. This is often exposed by an autoaufheben appeal wherein the person feigning the obtuseness, first claims that the argument is not understandable and then in the next breath, pretends they have found the flaw in it as well (something usually trivial or non-critical to the argument).

The Delimitation of Virtue – a society’s inability or failure to skillfully define ‘endangerment’, constitutes the chief endangerment to that society.

Delusions of Superiority Error – when one believes that they have special traits or talents not shared by other people. Usually these are confined to a narrow range of human abilities, and tend to center around issues of intelligence or education.

Desire to Offend Bias – when one excuses or bears a condition wherein, the desire to offend a targeted party is so high or is of such a first priority that, it imbues or reveals a bias or agency all of its own. The ironic bigotry of highlighting a strawman bigotry in another targeted party or disliked race. See Hitchens’ Apology.

Devil’s Bargain – an extremely disadvantageous deal, bearing a terrible price to pay (known or unknown), which someone considers accepting because they can either see no other way out of a problem situation, or desire some objective so much that they are willing to sacrifice something precious in order to attain it. The indicator of a devil’s bargain once adopted, is that the victim/participant will double down on their commitment to its ideal, any time a challenge is raised. No reflection or objectivity will be tolerated.

Dichotomy of Specific Descriptives – a form of panduction, wherein anecdotes are employed to force a conclusion about a broad array of opponents, yet are never used to apply any conclusion about self, or one’s favored club. Specific bad things are only done by the bad people, but very general descriptives of good, apply when describing one’s self or club. Specifics on others who play inside disapproved subjects, general nebulous descriptives on self identity and how it is acceptable ‘science’ or ‘skepticism’.

Diversion Program/Programmer – the antithesis of conspiracy theory/theorist. Diversion programs are used by totalitarian societies in lieu of prisons when either there is not enough prison space to incarcerate an entire population segment for their thoughts/beliefs/politics or the violations entailed do not rise to the level of high crimes. The end state of the diversion program is for the citizen to surrender compliance to a state-mandated set of thoughts/actions or silence, before being allowed back into society. Also known as corrective labor or reprogramming camps. The term also applies to those entities who seek to conduct diversion programming as a broader set of social activities on the part of their cabal or club.

Dunning-Kruger Denial (Non-Equivalence of Competence) – I don’t have to competent on a subject, in order to ascertain that you are incompetent on that subject.

Dunning-Kruger Effect – an effect in which incompetent people fail to realize they are incompetent because they lack the skill or maturity to distinguish between competence and incompetence among their peers.

Dunning-Kruger Projection (aka Plaiting) – the condition in which an expert, scientist or PhD in one discipline over-confidently or ignorantly fails to realize that they are not competent to speak in another discipline, or attempts to pass authority ‘as a scientist’ inside an expertise set to which they are only mildly competent at best. Any attempt to use the identity of ‘scientist’ to underpin authority, bully, seek worship or conduct self-deception regarding an array of subjects inside of which they in actuality know very little.

Dunning-Kruger Skepticism – an effect in which incompetent people making claim under ‘skepticism,’ fail to realize they are incompetent both as a skeptic and as well inside the subject matter at hand. Consequently they will fall easily for an argument of social denial/promotion because they

1.  lack the skill or maturity to distinguish between competence and incompetence among their skeptic peers and/or are

2.  unduly influenced by a condition of Dunning-Kruger Exploitation or Milieu, and/or are

3.  misled by false promotions of what is indeed skepticism, or possess a deep seated need to be accepted under a Negare Attentio Effect.

The Dunning Line (or Inretio Line, Latin ‘ensnare’) – ‘Discipline your mind into a steel trap, but make sure it doesn’t serve to only entrap you.’ The line beyond which, one has become so skeptical, that they have become stupid in the process. One skilled at filtering out only that information which offends their feelings and sensibility – as opposed to being based upon actual evidence or science. Named for the minimum level of prowess one can possess and still barely function as a skeptic, as opposed to a babbling cynic.

Editorial Burden Error – when employing one’s position as a regular/urgent editorial publication journalist or pretender, or some key presentation due inside a group of skepticism as a reason to boost one’s profile in attacking various subjects and people, without sound basis, ethics or rationality.

ekdíkisi (εκδίκηση) – an idea that operates under the theory that persons who use science as a self identity and battering ram to condemn others, often suffer from repressed outrage/injury over childhood or teen age rejection. Such individuals therefore seek to take the position of power afforded through ‘representing science’, as an arsenal of revenge against the opposite sex or a perception of inadequacy over their genitalia or degree of sexual activity or desirability during young adulthood. Greek for ‘vengeance’.

Elastration (Banding) – The use of an elastrator to gradually cease bloodflow to the testes of a bull. A furtive method of gradual castration and extinction, without the victim fully perceiving it. A method of enacting evil, without full perception of performing it.

Emotional Priming – a process of pseudo-education wherein a popular controversial issue such as Creation-Evolution, or Monsim-Dualism is framed as a whipping horse, posed in a false dilemma, so as to polarize the general public into ‘science’ and ‘woo’ camps of belief. The visceral reaction to the woo camp of belief inside academia imbues a type of anchoring bias and emotional agency on the part of those who self appoint or are tasked to ‘represent science’ – thereafter influencing their objectivity just as severely as would a religion.

Empathy Gap – the tendency to underestimate the influence or strength of feelings, in either oneself and over-estimate it in others.

Epicaricacy – schadenfreude is the enjoyment of witnessing the misfortune of others through their own mistake, accident or self inflicted agony. In contrast, epicariacy is the enjoyment of witnessing the harm one individual receives at the hands of another, usually maliciously-minded party. The similar English expression would be ‘Roman holiday’, a metaphor from the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by George Gordon (Lord Byron) wherein a gladiator in ancient Rome expects to be “butchered to make a Roman holiday,” i.e. the audience would take pleasure from watching his forced suffering at another’s hands. The term suggests motives of pleasure or political expediency beyond simple schadenfreude; consisting more of debauchery and exploitation for gain in addition to sadistic enjoyment. One exception to both meanings, and common mistake in their application however, is citing schadenfreude or epicariacy in the case where one is witnessing a temper tantrum. Temper tantrums are intended forms of violence upon others, and in no way reflect a person being in a state of misfortune or harm.

ergo sum scientia – when a person loudly and visibly champions an easy or a sensible cause célèbre in support/defense of science, in order to tender the appearance of and imply to an audience that they represent critical thinking, the scientific method or the correct conclusions of science.

ergo sum veritas Fallacy – the contention, implication or inference that one’s own ideas or the ideas of others hold authoritative or evidence based veracity simply because their proponent has declared themselves to be a ‘skeptic.’

ergo sum veritas Fallacy (strong) – the assumption that because one is acting in the name of skepticism, evidence or science, that such a self claimed position affords a person exemption from defamation, business tampering, fraud, privacy, stalking, harassment and tortious interference laws.

Erleben – the feeling one gets when actually undergoing a real personal challenge, while at the same time witnessing a poseur pretending to bemoan life under burden of that challenge, which is either self imposed or adopted as a religious or fashion statement.

The Error of the Atheist – oppose the cabal, yes – but never instruct a person as to what the correct metaphysical choice should be – lest you become the cabal.

Erwartungstoleranz – (Ger: ‘anticipation tolerance’) – a passive form of hatred wherein an observer ignores the fact that an opponent is about to make a mistake, and allows the mistake to occur without interruption – through motivation by epicariacy, an innate desire to punish, or allowing harm to manifest on their opponent over that mistake. ‘Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself.’

Ethical Skeptic’s Axiom of Extremism and Science – if they will choose to be an extremist politically, this offers a glimpse as to the poor integrity and instant-grits rigor placed into their claim of ‘settled science’ as well.

Ethical Skeptic’s Axiom of Nelsonian Knowledge – in order to distort the truth, you first have to know it.

Ethical Skeptic’s Dictum of Malice and Human Rights – “Within the context of an impingement of human rights, incompetence and malice are indistinguishable.”

Ethical Skeptic’s Dictum of Rhetoric – what is posed in the rhetorical, can only be opposed with the rhetorical. One cannot answer a rhetorical question with objective reason and evidence.

Ethical Skeptic’s Dictum of the Cabal – a cabal is detected not through their unity in message, but rather their unity in ignorance. A cabal is a consensus of ignorance.

The Ethical Skeptic’s Law of Advanced Intelligence

Neti’s Razor – one cannot produce evidence from an entity which at a point did or will not exist, to also demonstrate that nothing aside from that entity therefore exists. The principle which serves to cut secular nihilism as a form of belief, distinct from all other forms of atheism as either philosophy or belief. From the Sanskrit idiom, Neti Neti (not this, not that). Therefore, you are wholly unqualified to instruct me that this realm is the only realm which exists, and efforts to do so constitute a religious activity.

I Am that I Am – that which possesses the unique ability to be able to define itself, renders all other entities disqualified in such expertise. There is no such thing as an expert in god. The principle which serves to cut theism as a form of belief, distinct from all other forms of belief as either philosophy or religion. From the Torah idiom, I Am (I Am that I Am or in Sanskrit, Aham Bramsmi).  Therefore, if god existed, you are unqualified to tell me about it. So, theism falls into a lack of allow-for domain.

Non-Existence Definition – six questions form the basis of a definition: What, Where, When, How, Why, Who. The answers to this set of six questions still forms a definition of expert attributes, even if the answer to all six is ’empty set’. Therefore, when one applies the ethics of skepticism – one cannot formulate a definition which is specified as ’empty set’, without due empirical underpinning, a theory possessing a testable mechanism and a consilience of supporting research.  We have none of this, and can make no claims to ‘non-existence’ expertise in god.

Principle of Indistinguishability – any sufficiently advanced act of benevolence is indistinguishable from either malevolence or chance.

Ethical Skeptic’s Law of Slow Moving Disasters – slow moving disasters (famine, climate change, pandemic, racism, etc.) will universally involve sacrifice solely on the part of a consistent and single targeted ethnicity, gender and nationality.

Ethical Skeptic’s Law of Virtue and Value – the problem with easy money on Wall Street is that people who are trained to think that money comes in absence of any form of delivery of value – those poseurs rise into positions of power. These entities coordinate with social virtue activists as a result, because they cannot attach margin to value. Those who bear no skill in provision of value, will substitute virtue in its place.

Ethical Skeptic’s Law of Virtue and Violence – violence is always presaged by virtue. Oppression is always presaged by truth. A violent movement seeking oppressive power, will always costume itself in a virtuous cause of some kind (science, the people, the children, the migrant, the worker, etc.), during its ascendancy. It does not matter who is actually in current power. Violent forces will inevitably decided that their virtue exonerates their incompetence, and more importantly, justifies violence in the establishment of their righteous power.

Ethical Skeptic’s Principle of Celebrity – never trust a video which is filmed through glass. Never trust a message which is delivered by celebrity.

Ethical Skeptic’s Principle of the Fool – Derived from Sun Tzu’s “Never interrupt your enemy in the midst of their making a mistake”, a principle which cites ‘Gently applaud the growing celebrity of a fool’, or ‘Receive with grace, the encroaching visibility of a fool’.

Ethical Skeptic’s Principle of Money and Power – it is difficult to get a person to study and know something, when their income or power depends upon their not studying or knowing it.

Ethical Skeptic’s Razor – dangerous demands greater level of evidence than does crazy. Any claim which exposes a stakeholder to risk, ignorance or loss of value – regardless of how ordinary, virtuous or correct – demands extraordinary evidence. For a skeptic, a person who claims to represent science and uses ‘facts’ to lie, misrepresent, manipulate, and push politics – is worse than someone who claims there is a Galactic Federation of Aliens out there. Dangerous is much worse than crazy.

Ethical Skeptic’s Second Razor – all things being equal, a claim to correctness (lack of misinformation) bears the greater chance of being a lie.

Evil – in contrast with ‘good’, which is not a Wittgenstein object, evil does possess a definition:

1. Causing or allowing to occur, a transpiration which bears a primary objective or likelihood of resulting in harm to an innocent party; enabled through a process of deception and with forethought and intent as to the harm potential involved. Intent to harm through fraud with scienter. A being is not evil, only method is evil.
2. Skill in adopting an action or appearance which is otherwise defined as good (virtue), in order to accomplish definition 1.

ex praesidio nocere – the state or condition wherein the majority of harm is being derived from those very entities which ostensibly are put in place to protect from harm.

Exoentropy of Normatives – the effort to enforce order inside a controlled subsystem, inevitably and ironically serves to increase the level of disorder or entropy surrounding it. Moreover, systemic dynamics can serve to impart unethical consequentialist outcomes which arrive as a result solely and wholly from individual efforts to maintain normatives of propriety or the appearance of such propriety; especially when coupled with the gaming and exploitation potential therein. This is also known as exoentropy, wherein a decrease in entropy of a subsystem leads further to an even greater entropic contribution to its surroundings or surrounding systems – resulting in an overall entropy or loss to the whole. An example of this can be found in the observation known as Goodhart’s Law and Goodhart’s Law of Skepticism.

ex opere operato – a form of appeal to skepticism, wherein the person who has declared them self to be a skeptic, believes that therefore they justly derive their credibility from a higher office. The fallacy wherein one regards the superiority of their position to not be derived merely from their own opinion; implying rather, that all their thoughts, rationalizations, conclusions and beliefs confer from a higher authority – that of scientists or science, the evidence, doubt, critical thinking or skepticism.

Expert/Expertise – one who can, or that awareness which enables one to, negotiate randomness and spot obviousness, more reliably than the average person.

Exploiter – an Agent of Deskeption who poses as an Anti-Institutionalist, Champion of the Credulist and representative of the Concealed Truth. The work of such individuals or groups often becomes the source material used frequently and conveniently in a Lob and Slam Ploy.

Extremist/Fanaticist/Ultraist – a person or group of similar minded persons who fail in comprehension of two valuable human truths: 1) the value of creating allies from those who only mildly disagree, and 2) the error of siding with ‘the enemy of thy enemy’ – seldom grasping that, given condition 1) the likelihood that this new allied enemy will be worse than their old one is very high. The extremist not only does not care, but furthermore does not possess the skill to discern this condition nor fathom its principle. Orange man bad. A mental state which makes one vulnerable to manipulation by this mindset.

¡fact! – lying through facts. Data or a datum which is submitted in order to intimidate those in a discussion, is not really understood by the claimant, or rather which is made up, is not salient or relevant to the question being addressed, or is non-sequitur inside the argument being made. The relating of a fact which might be true, does not therefore mean that one is relating truth.

Fact Checker – one subset of the class of Nitzsche’s bildungsphilister – one who fails to grasp that fact bears only a specious relation to truth. They should be ranked for trust between the liar and the dilettante.

Factority – when one cites a couple ¡fact! bits around a subject they condemn or imply expertise inside of, so that they can then further make the claim that that they are only ‘speaking from the evidence’ and not making a claim to authority.

Fair Dinkum – a question which essentially asks ‘Have you put in the hard work and direct experience, ability or integrity which substantiates the quality of your offering?’ ‘Dinkum’ is a slang term that appears to have grown up from a variety of stories and dialects in Australia – and bearing two meanings, proof in the pudding by means of ‘work’ ‘value’ and/or ‘fair play’.

Fake Hoax Exploitation – an Agent of Deskeption who is anonymous, or who poses to be representative of the Concealed Truth, then posits a transparently ludicrous idea or obviously faked hoax piece of ‘evidence’ which is posed in order to discredit and poorly characterize those of opposite opinions from the SSkeptic.

Fallacy of Centrality – If something significant was happening, I’d know about it; since I don’t know about it, it isn’t happening. A fallacy framed by researcher Ron Westrum while observing the diagnostic practices of pediatricians in the 1940s and 1950s. An expert or self-proclaimed one assumes that they are in a central position inside a topic or discipline. Moreover they assume that if something of serious import were happening, they would know about it. Since they don’t know about it, therefore it isn’t happening.

Fallacy of Personal Privation – when one claims to be an expert or a professional working in a given field; but when pressed, cannot seem to be able to produce studies, data or ideas which are not already very commonly shared in public circles or via web searches.

Fallacy of Relative Privation – claiming that science is only the property of scientists. Dismissing an avenue of research due its waste of scientists’ time and to the existence of more important, but unrelated, problems in the world which require priority research.

False Consensus Effect – the tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them.

False Humility – to feign humility or act is certain ways so as to appear to not hold an enormous ego – while at the same time actually seeking status, argument leverage and/or praise from a targeted group.

Fanaticist’s Error – mistaking one’s fanaticism or being ‘hardcore’ as positively indicative of the level of understanding and commitment one possesses inside a philosophy or adopted belief set. The reality is that being fanatical or hardcore indicates more one’s dissonance over not fully believing, nor fully understanding the nature of the belief tenets to which they have lent fealty. A fanaticist is different from a fanatic. A fanatic simply loves a particular subject or brand. A fanaticist on the other hand employs their outward extremism as a cover to hide an unacknowledged and suppressed inner cognitive dissonance.

Faustian Skeptic – one who attributes his accomplishment to skill or knowledge of science, when in fact such success has mostly stemmed from a track record of complicity and sycophancy. A shill who has sold their soul in service to a corporate agenda.

Fauxpology – a statement which is posed in the context of or dressed up as an apology; which in reality dodges, shifts or bounces back the blame onto the injured party – usually delivered in condescending tone. Often a hint as to the immaturity of the fauxpologist’s character, mixed with an adult-level intent and skill in deceiving and harming others. A fauxpology is never an innocent action – and its issuer should never be trusted.

Fear as Doubt Fallacy – when doubt or skepticism serves a psychological defense mechanism to protect one from a subject which frightens the one feigning doubt or skepticism.

fictus scientia Fallacy – the furtive presumption that one possesses the status, education, experience, intellect, professional background, critical thinking skills, empirical evidence or rational basis from which to speak in lieu or on behalf of science or representing proper execution of the scientific method.

fictus skeptica – fake skeptic. Thinking that skepticism is an approach to evaluating claims in lieu of science’s role to perform such activities.  Thinking that since one’s personal version of ‘rational thinking’ emphasizes evidence and applies tools of science, therefore it can bypass having to employ actual science.

Flummery – meaningless ceremonial or sycophant journalism – often characterized by worn out catch phrases, article structures, quotes, recitations, common bad guys, phrase cloning, celebrity deference and social peer flattery, often inexpertly applied and misunderstood by the writer. It is usually passed by journalists seeking to gain favor inside social skepticism or in certain political or religious circles. It features common overused pejoratives against the same group of disliked persons, and features terms such as ‘anti-___’ or ‘___-ism’ or ‘denialist’, etc. It is a form of ass kissing enacted by persons who are not particularly intelligent but nonetheless seek the social/career acceptance of appearing to be ‘rational’.

Folta ¡Expert! – declaring one’s self to be an expert on an array of topics so broad that a seasoned career professional is able to discern that such a state of expertise is an impossibility.

Fox News Façade – seeking admittance to exclusive groups by visually bashing Fox News or subjects reported on Fox News (or other appropriate news outlet disdained by highly political minded people), in an effort to appear socially acceptable and in-the-club. Any pretense worn as an adornment in order to impress peers and higher-ups.

Frenemy – an activist so energized by a symbol of virtue or reason, that they lose focus on the reasonable bounds of such an idea and begin to use it to promote their personal hatreds, religion and economic views. Activism to such an extreme or straw man that it imparts harm to the original virtue or set of reason to which the activist attached themself. Crazy allied activists who end up doing more harm to the topic than do its enemies. Climate change proponents who use climate change as a battering ram to insist on socialist, fascist or communist takeover or the removal of human rights.

Fundamental Attribution Bias – when one considers the traits of another to stem from the disposition of that individual such that it may affect that person’s behavior as opposed to situational factors; yet views their own behavior as stemming from chiefly situational factors.

Fundamental Attribution of Doubt Bias – when one views skepticism inside one’s own disposition as constituting justifiable doubt, yet views skepticism in another as constituting conspiracy theory. When one’s position is held solely because it is backed by an institution or person which cannot be questioned outside the context of conspiracy – this amounts to an appeal to authority.

Furtive Fecklessness – a person who has no life, except that they feign skepticism in order to be deemed acceptable by the social skepticism group of cronies, or considered with the respect of a scientist in terms of knowledge on a subject, while bearing none of the credentials.

Green Lumber Fallacy – a fallacy exemplifying the distinction between understanding and knowledge. Supposedly originating from a trader named Joe Siegel. He was one of the most successful traders in a commodity he called “green lumber,” which he actually thought was lumber painted green, instead of freshly cut lumber (called green because it has not been dried). Despite his lack of knowledge of the social-intellectual facts surrounding the matter of lumber, he understood by being a doer rather than an academic, the entire in’s and out’s of trading green lumber. It can also be taken as an example of a different fallacy – those who live in specially set up cocoons of protection, or of very focused expertise, can thrive based upon a small set of understanding, as long as access is controlled by high barriers to entry, one does not even have to be knowledgeable, in order to win.

God – Ω • ⊕ : any entity which has been ceded ongoing power, yet at the same time retains an ongoing lack of accountability. A standard employed by a proxy agent, as a virtual mass in the social leveraging of a victim.

God Protects Fools and Drunkards Inversion – a condition inside a domain or system wherein the complexity of the system is so high, that few to no experts actually exist. In such a circumstance, those who deceive themselves with facile, apothegm-fueled, or simpleton understandings of the complex system are more dangerous than those who are completely ignorant of the system altogether. An inversion wherein the ignorant are wiser in their outcomes than are the learned. One example is metabolic pathways found in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (particularly as it pertains to obesity and dieting) – a discipline which is so complex that pretend experts abound, and the only actual inhabitants inside the study domain are researchers, hustlers, and the lucky.

God Proxy – any stakeholder which seeks to exploit the privileged existence as a god (power, money, notoriety, comfort), without appearing to pretend to the role. Also a stakeholder which serves to promote a set of mandatory beliefs and maintain the unaccountable nature of the entity they serve, justified by the entity’s un-assailability as either a personified or non-personified external standard.

Goodhart’s Law of Skepticism – when skepticism itself becomes the goal, it ceases to be skepticism.

Google Blame Ranking Effect – if advice about what you are personally doing wrong, inhabits 90% of the first three pages of ranked responses on Google, it is most certainly wrong.

Google Goggles – warped or blinded perception of self status cultivated through the ease of promotion of false information on the web. Vulnerability of self perception where every street doubter perceives and promotes them self as an authority on science. (See Margold’s Law on the friendly reception given by the Cabal to this crooked thinking)

Grey’s Law – any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

Gundeck/Gundecking – a form of methodical deescalation and Nelsonian inference. Meaning to slip away to lower decks of a ship or lesser functions of professional conduct in order to put on the appearance of working on an objective. However in reality, one is merely avoiding or falsifying the necessary work at hand.

• Being a scientist when one needs to be an investigator.
• Being a technician when one needs to be a scientist.

Whatever keeps one from discovering that which they do not want discovered, or not performing work on the salient question at hand.

Hanlon’s Dilemma – a corollary of Hanlon’s Law which cites that one should never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. A skeptic who denies conspiracy then in malicious/deleterious actions must then imply that ignorance and incompetence are therefore at play.

Hate Rhetoric – unleashing of a sometimes rhythmic and sermon-like rambling circular logic, stringing together a series of emphatic good sounding one-liners and memes into a web of defacto hate. A surreptitiously directed hate, focused on persons who coincidentally also happen to be of a different ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic grouping than the person issuing the rhetoric.

Hawthorne Contrast – a principle wherein a pretend skeptic will improve an aspect of their behavior simply in response to the fact that they are being studied or observed in a debate, whereas an honest opponent in a disagreement typically will not change theirs.

Hegelian Dialectic – three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. In more simplistic terms, one can consider it thus: proposition → anti-proposition → solution. In a Machiavelli Solution, a third party creates and/or exploits the self-sublation condition of this bifurcation in thesis, in order to sustain a conflict between two opposing ideas or groups, and eventually exploit those two groups’ losses into its own gain in power.

The High & Low Poseur – do A, then B was the right choice. Do B, then A was the right choice. Do A and B, you are over-complicating. They are afraid to risk being wrong, or lack the skill to create their own work. They always know ‘how it should really be done’, but never can seem to actually do it themself – and rather, only bear the ability to critique ideas they disdain or the work of others.

Hitchens’ Apology (Desire to Offend Bias) – when one uses Christopher Hitchens’ apologetics to excuse/cover for a bias. Using the familiar Hitchens quote, valid in its own right, to excuse a condition wherein, the desire to offend is so high or is a first priority such that, it imbues or reveals a bias all of its own. A way of masquerading agency under the apologetic “If someone tells me that I’ve hurt their feelings, I say, ‘I’m still waiting to hear what your point is.’ In this country I’ve been told, ‘That’s offensive,’ as if those two words constitute an argument or a comment. Not to me they don’t.”

Hoary Glory Bias – when one cites old ridiculous arguments from opposing groups from ancient times or older eras of scientific understanding, to serve as exemplary rationale as to the impeccable nature of and false incumbent merit of argument on the part of the arguer/arguer’s allegiance group.

Hoaxer (Fake) – hoaxer who perpetrates hoaxes to “Show how easy it is to fake this stuff.” A hoax in which the perpetrator discloses that the evidence is a fake; at some later time after they have gained the adrenaline rush of deception or when the revelation will increase their celebrity status to the greatest effect. The implication is that this hoax-and-reveal process is some sort of grand ethical action on their part. In reality.

Honeydew Wagon Ride – that period of time between when one knows they are about to be caught in a lie or crime, but the key revealing information has not arrived and no one is aware of that fact just yet. People in this circumstance tend to be uncharacteristically quiet.

Huckster’s Anxiety – a form of dissonance/anger wherein a sales person or person making a pitch thinks that they are about to close a deal, and the sales target starts probing into issues of soundness, after the sales person has already tasted blood. This can elicit a form of sudden anger and posturing on the pitch-maker’s part. It can also serve as a form of manipulation of the intended target of the sale.

Humping the Elephant – an extension of the familiar ‘elephant looks different from every angle metaphor;’ wherein a fake skeptic is not actually trying to find out the truth, rather is simply there for personal benefit or agenda promotion. In this context having their way with the elephant rather than trying to find out what it is.

ideam tutela – concealed agency. A questionable idea or religious belief which is surreptitiously promoted through an inverse negation. A position which is concealed by an arguer because of their inability to defend it, yet is protected at all costs without its mention – often through attacking without sound basis, every other form of opposing idea.

Identity Compromise – a lending of fealty to a group to which one’s values or ethics would normally conflict, as a matter of expediency or self protection. Often characterized by usage of the phrase ‘I identify with’ in such a way as to divorce the person, who would otherwise in a normal context employ the expression ‘I am’, from accountability for the actions or impacts of the philosophy to which they are lending fealty.  This allows one to act as a member or protect one’s self from reprisals by falsely holding a position, which an internal conflict or conscience would not allow one to otherwise normally hold.  It is indicative of social programming and brainwashing.

Ignorance – is not a ‘lack of knowledge’ but is rather a verb, meaning ‘a cultivated quiescence before an idea or group which has become more important to protect than science, human rights, well-being, and life itself.’ The belief that one has personally attained a state of immunity to incorrect information. The action of blinding one’s self to an eschewed reality through a satiating and insulating culture and lexicon.

Illusion of Asymmetric Insight – people perceive their knowledge of their competitors to surpass their competitors’ knowledge of them.

Illusion of Superiority – overestimating one’s desirable qualities, and underestimating undesirable qualities, relative to other people.

Illusion of Validity – belief that furtherly acquired information or promulgated policy generates additional relevant data for predictions or information to bolster a position, even when it in reality does not.

‘I’m Not a Scientist’ Rhetorical Exclusion – an artifice of rhetoric in which one begins a pseudoscientific assertion with the preamble ‘Now, I am not a scientist but…’ What the claimant has done with this is to imply that scientists are a group, marginalized from society, which had made the claim of being the only ones worthy to speak on a topic of contention. It is used to isolate the concerns of science as therefore being fringe or oppressive in nature by default.

Immunity Signalling – a special form of virtue signalling usually practiced by a university or corporation, wherein once it realizes that a technology or science it intends to introduce might serve to place the environment, a species, or humans at risk – in advance they will fund a large project with regard to the at-risk victim or aspect of introduced risk, signalling support for that at-risk population, issue or ecosphere. Usually this will involve the employment of top scientists which study the at risk entity, which will serve to silence them or enlist them as allies in the anticipated social debate. The virtue signal, along with the employed senior scientists will intimidate universities and activist organizations into immunity-based silence on behalf of signalling entity.

Indigo Point Man (Person) – one who conceals their cleverness or contempt. Based upon the tenet of ethical skepticism which cites that a shrewdly apportioned omission at Point Indigo, an inflection point early in a system, event or process, is a much more effective and hard to detect cheat/skill, than that of more manifest commission at Point Tau, the tipping point near the end of a system, event or process. Based upon the notion ‘Watch for the gentlemanly Dr. Jekyl at Point Tau, who is also the cunning Mr. Hyde at Point Indigo’. It outlines a principle wherein those who cheat (or apply their skill in a more neutral sense) most effectively, such as in the creation of a cartel, cabal or mafia – tend do do so early in the game and while attentions are placed elsewhere. In contrast, a Tau Point man tends to make their cheat/skill more manifest, near the end of the game or at its Tau Point (tipping point).

ingens vanitatum – (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.

Integrity Tell – a skeptic who has examined themself first, should never cheat nor mock objective dissent in order to provide an ideological advantage for favored views. This is the first sign that one’s integrity has been compromised. The telltale sign that one is not really a skeptic.

Intellectual Messiah Complex – the belief on the the part of a false skeptic, that their superior education/rationality/mindset affords them tacit justification to represent the unheralded real well being of the people. Often combined with the attitude that people in general are too stupid/irrational to have any input on matters which skeptics advocate on their behalf.

Impulse Inference (Religious Doctrine) – this is a twisted and sick-minded form of metaphysical selection or faith. The only practice set which operates under a masquerade in this set of inference species and genres, is the practice of religious assumption, doctrine and dogma. This of course includes the habits of those who practice social skepticism. These religions will attempt to pass their doctrines as species of logical inference – through a process known as apologetics. This is a type of pathology wherein the participant very desperately wants to seek validation for a taught or personally adopted set of metaphysical conclusions. This is not truly an actual form of inference.

intra ludio – or the telltale of the inside actor. If someone is truly an expert proponent of a subject, then that proponent should also be able to offer his subject’s most profound expert critique as well – and be forthcoming about unanswered daunting questions inside that subject. The key is to watch for this honesty in conviction – the faker does neither of these things – an only defends his precious argument. As an evolutionist, I do not believe that you support evolution, nor really even know it – if you cannot offer up a cogent and accurate summation of its current challenges and shortfalls. You may offer them up as ‘gaps’, but to totally ignore them tells the ethical skeptic that their opponent is both ignorant and dishonest as well.

Inverse Negation Fallacy (of Presumption) – the asymmetric strategy of promoting a desired idea through cancellation of all its antithetical concepts and competing ideas. A method which seeks to undermine and censor any communication, research, or construct which runs counter to a favored idea, often through framing such activity as ‘pseudoscience’ or ‘conspiracy theory’. A surreptitious effort to promote a favored idea without acknowledging it, nor appearing to be in advocacy for it, nor undertaking the risk of exposing that favored idea to the scientific method or critical scrutiny. This because the implicitly favored model itself, although promoted as Truth^TM, often is unethical or bears very little credibility when examined stand-alone.

Jamais l’a Fait – Never been there. Never done that. Someone pretending to the role of designer, manager or policy maker – when in fact they have never actually done the thing they are pretending to legislate, decide upon or design.. A skeptic who teaches skepticism, but has never made a scientific discovery, nor produced an original thought for themself. Interest rate policy bureaucrats who have never themselves borrowed money to start a business nor been involved in anything but banks and policymaking. User manuals done by third parties, tax laws crafted by people who disfavor people unlike themselves more heavily, hotel rooms designed by people who do not travel much, cars designed by people who have never used bluetooth or a mobile device, etc.

JAQing (Just Asking Questions) – a form of rhetorical arguing wherein a person will game the discussion by:

1. Feigning lack of understanding (often to later belie this by showing they did understand all along),

2. Failing to address the critical path argument or obviating its context from being applied to the discussion,

3. Beginning discussion by means of condemning conclusions posed in the form of a question, and/or

4. Continuous searching for any possible interpretive minor flaw in an argument or data set, which can be spun as a ‘debunking’.

JAQing constitutes a warning flag of agency and dishonesty in the person who engages by means of it.

Joe Poser – when an activist is selected at random from an audience, or is foisted upon a viewing audience as being randomly selected from a crowd sentiment – when neither is the case. Any instance where a crowd or audience plant is used as a supposed random interview or question poser, whom has been planted for just such a role in an audience advertised to reflect the general public or average citizen.

Journalistic Hyperbole, The Principle of – when a journalist cites that an issue is the ‘most’, ‘worst’, ‘deadliest’, ‘open-shut’ or scientifically settled, you can safely discern that the journalist fears that the issue might not even be real and/or is attempting to escalate the language of the argument to intimidate opponents. Hyperbole betrays self doubt or a lack of real evidence.

Jumping the Shark – a ridiculous event or issue which serves to expose the latent ridiculousness of other previous events or issues or fecklessness on the part of the event or issue source itself. Roughly synonymous with ‘nuking the fridge’ or ‘opening the vault’.

Käseglocke – German for ‘cheese dome’. A condition and/or place where nothing can get in, and nothing can get out. A society, culture or club where development has stultified and the organized group no longer provides benefit to themselves nor those around them or society at large. A group which has ceased learning and/or its ability to increase understanding. See anomie, with respect to the morals and ethics version of such a condition.

Kilkenny’s Law – final claims to expertise and evidence may be tendered inside established trade, transactional, technical and diagnostic disciplines. Therefore:

I.  A conclusive claim to evidence inside a subject bearing a sufficiently unknown or risk-bearing horizon, is indistinguishable from an appeal to authority, and

II.  Corber’s Burden: A sufficiently large or comprehensive set of claims to conclusive evidence in denial, is indistinguishable from an appeal to authority.

III.  If you have brought me evidence based claims in the past which turned out to be premature and harmful/wrong, I will refuse to recognize your successive claims to be evidence based.

Kit Cynicism – a method of being a cynic, such as in the case of Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit, which allows one to be a cynic while at the same time convincing yourself you are not one.

Knapp’s Axiom – a quip by Las Vegas based investigative reporter for KLAS-TV, George Knapp, “The purpose of science is to investigate the unexplained, not explain the uninvestigated.” Citing the fallacy of an appeal to ignorance especially as it pertains to the refusal to develop plurality around challenging and robust ‘paranormal’ observation sets.

krymméno akrasia – an akratic person goes against reason as a result of some pathos (“emotion,” “feeling”). The person who practices krymméno akrasia hides this pathos and develops it by means of methodically and cynically playing the boundaries of the three Aristotelian virtues, wisdom, morality and benevolence; this in order to present a façade of character, while at the same time, deriving a more esoteric and occult goal.

La Rochefoucauld Pride – humility is not displayed in how one appears to regard self, rather in the subtleties of how one treats and regards others. It is very easy to cast and portray a humble person in a movie, but very difficult to cast and portray a genuine person. The reason is because the former can be play-acted, while the latter usually can not. Francois de La Rochefoucauld was noted to have said, ‘Humility is the worst form of conceit.’ La Rochefoucauld pride is therefore a form of play-acted humility, conducted under a miasma of non-genuineness, which is ironically worn as a necessary costume under the social burden to conceal an intense and socially unacceptable level of conceit.

The Last Contributor (Principle of the Critique) – a shallow person (often one who exploits this principle intentionally) who contributes the last $5 to a $100 fund, or provides a finishing element of critique to a long effort of creativity, conjecture, risk, work, faulure and success – often is tempted to believe that they provided the entire solution or set of value. Often believing that they provided the entire $100, and lording it over the other providers.

Latent Violation – a condition wherein a person is motivated to compliance through the lack of enforcement of a penalty concerning a violation which they, or most every one in their social group has committed. Each member knowing that if they dissent or act out of line with the group, the public humiliation and punishment for such violation could be called in at any time.

Latet Misandry – the deceptive employment of positions of skepticism or channels of skeptical media to promote ideas or ‘scientific’ evidence supporting the hatred of males or men. To conceal a hatred of males behind a pretense of rational thinking, social justice or science.

Lead-in Lie – deception by means of preamble. When someone introduces a point by first excusing themselves from a group related to that point, they are indeed a member of the group they have tried to distance themselves from. “I’m not a believer in psychic phenomena, but… when I was…”

Learned Helplessness – a form of default passive ‘skepticism’ wherein one becomes so busy or so anesthetized to specific or societal problems, that one does not rush to judgement simply through default, not skepticism – by means of being too busy or too tired to do anything else but be silent. A form of passive resignation, which receives a positive spin in the victim’s mind, portraying to themself and others, that this passivity is purposed as a form of ‘skepticism’. A condition derived from animals experiments wherein cats or dogs were repeatedly shocked inside a cage, until they just no longer responded to the stimuli because they could not do anything about it.

Lemming Inertia/Karen Train – the propensity for a syndicate, club, or advocacy group to be deluded by ad populum (appeal to club popularity of an idea) and ad virtutem (appeal to virtue of self and their ideas) in support of a notion – to the extent that even if they are found wrong, the movement can no longer be stopped. The belief that because one is acting as proxy in the name of some oppressed party, therefore they are now qualified to rule over others, silence speech, scream, attack, and harm in the name of that virtue costume – without any further circumspection or accountability from that point onward.

Lie of Allegiance – committed when a proponent of a specific side in a false dilemma argument misrepresents themselves as holding one socially acceptable or attractive philosophy in name, yet teaches/practices another less acceptable or extremist philosophy altogether.

Loosh – a spiritual intoxicant derived from the acute suffering of higher sentience beings, including and especially those who are human or of an unblemished, young or innocent nature. The addictive essence which is derived from a blood sacrifice, broad scale destitution, war, pandemic, and/or sexual exploitation, which imparts a temporary rush in its abuser, mistakenly perceived as spiritual power. A currency or wage which is doled out among those who have unwisely addicted themselves to it, which is used to control and direct the actions of a mindless dark hierarchy.

Luftmensch – an impractical dreamer or someone who overestimates their expertise or ability in subjects they consider beneath their paygrade. Someone who dreams big, but does not really understand or cannot deliver the operations/business specifics necessary to make their dream a reality.

Machiavelli Solution – a three stage ‘solution’, implemented through an often unseen or unappreciated agency’s manipulation of a population. This is what fake and celebrity skeptics are doing to us today – they work to foment conflict between the public and science/scientists – in order to exploit the self-sublation into their own power and enforcement of their own religion, sol-nihilism. There are three steps to this:

1. Hegelian Dialectic – three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. In more simplistic terms, one can consider it thus: proposition → anti-proposition → solution.​

However, the proposition and anti-proposition become stuck in a thing called self-sublation​. A state in which both extremes have been falsified, however no one can give either extreme up, because of the perceived risk of a victory by the other side:

2. Self-Sublation (autoaufheben) – Hegelian principle of a dialectic which is stuck in stasis through an idea both canceling and sustaining itself at the same time. A doubled meaning: it means both to cancel (or negate) and to preserve at the same time.​

The proposition/anti-proposition tension now stuck as its own perpetual argument, this gives rise to the surreptitiously played​:

3. Machiavelli Solution – a third party creates and/or exploits the self-sublation condition of a Hegelian dialectic bifurcation at play, in order to sustain a conflict between two opposing ideas or groups, and eventually exploit those two groups’ losses into its own gain in power.​

Magician’s Ruse – when implying or contending that because one has done table and cards tricks, that they are therefore now a stage magician and cannot subsequently be fooled; or that as a result one carries some special ability to be insightful, apply critical thinking or the scientific method.

Malevolence – a dark triad of psychological traits, which is concealed by the dark triad participant’s tandem virtue signaling actions, which target exploiting harm to specific parties for one’s benefit. Malevolence (or the Dark Triad), according to the Handbook of interpersonal theory and research, by Jones and Paulhus, comprises three personality traits:

1) Narcissism, characterized by grandiosity, self-pride, egotism, celebrity-seeking and a lack of empathy,

2) Machiavellianism, characterized by sleight-of-hand, manipulation and exploitation of others, a cynical disregard for ethics or morality, and a focus on self-interest and deception and

3) Psychopathy, characterized by highly visible compensation for antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callousness, and obdurate remorselessness.

Masquerade of the Middle – an arguer who cites that there are persons on one side of an argument encouraging him to be more fervent in his position/substantiation, and on the other side those who contend he is an idiot or completely wrong. Then employing this as a false indicator that he/she is practicing some kind of objective neutrality or middle ground. A fake sleuth will employ this in almost every publicly visible scenario. Alternately, any form of desperate search for a proponent to the more extreme than one’s self, in order to foist the appearance of neutrality or reasonableness.

McMurphy – code word for patients who emerge from a social skeptic indoctrination process in a vegetative state, their minds having been captured into the bullshit science enthusiast and overused one-liner matrix. A play on the authority intolerance-imposed vegetative state in which Patrick R McMurphy ended up in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Medical Proxy Abuse – two species of abuse in terms of human rights, child, or caretaker, in which a caregiver is pathologically negligent in their duties towards their patient or care recipient.

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) – a form of child or care-recipient abuse. It is an intentional fabrication or physical production of illness in another, usually children by mothers, to assume a role of being sick by proxy on the part of the one in their care.

Sarscov Syndrome by Proxy (SSBP) – a form of pathological human rights abuse. A form of hero syndrome or megalomania expressed through establishing exclusivity or intentional withholding of access to a physiological necessity or treatment. This is conducted with the intent of only administering such a necessity, cure, or treatment of related symptoms under the most dire, sensational, attention-garnering, or expensive conditions.

melochi kupets (Russian: мелочи купец) – trivia merchant. One who feigns competence or intimidates curious outsiders through display of detailed mundane knowledge of the industry in which they operate. One who cannot differentiate the distinction between a peripheral or irrelevant detail and a critical path element or principle.

The Mendoza Line – is an expression which originates from in baseball in the United States, derived from the name of shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose poor .200 batting average is taken to define the threshold standard of incompetent performance. When a skeptic or someone who purports to possess skill at deriving the most likely answer or the truth, is so bad at those purported skills that they are regarded as performing ‘Below the Mendoza Line’ in accuracy or competence. Alternately applying the same principle to claimed skills in understanding, prediction, economic forecasts, business success, relationships, science, etc.

metánoia – Greek μετάνοια, meaning ‘contrition’. The state of mind or action when one suddenly realizes that they are not, nor ever have been ‘The Resistance’ – but rather have been a soldier in The Evil Empire all along. The chagrin over having been duped over a period of time, into committing or supporting harmful or heinous actions as part of a larger group.

Methodical Cynicism – a method of being a cynic, such as in the case of Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit, which allows one to be a cynic while at the same time convincing yourself you are not one.

Miller’s Law of Communication – in order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of. Anything short of this is impersonation of a listener.

Mona Lisa Effect – the misconception on the part of a person pushing their celebrity or narcissism by means of an agenda, or even agenda of convenience or virtue (about which they care nothing in reality), that every evolution of a conversation is about them or contains some schemed affront to their virtue or truth. Named after the effect (mistakenly attributed to the Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa) wherein a painting’s eyes will present the illusion of following one about the room as they move by it.

Mooers’ Law – a information source will tend not to be used by a faking skeptic whenever it is more painful and troublesome for the skeptic to have its information than for him not to have it.

Moral Credential Effect – the tendency of a track record of non-prejudice to increase subsequent prejudice.

Moral Recourse – an appeal to morality wherein a faking arguer who actually bears no interest in the science behind an issue, is outflanked, and actual science is no longer on his side. He will shift to moral arguments and attempt to make his opponents appear to be bad or immoral for their stance. This is the shift we see underway now in vaccine science for instance, now that early immune activation and injected aluminum are linked in numerous studies to autism, the argument is no longer scientific, rather a moral appeal.

Motte-and-Bailey Fallacy – named after Motte-and-Bailey Castle, this informal fallacy is a tactic of argument wherein the arguer conflates two forms of contention which are similar in concept or semantics, but differ in overall acceptability. One concept will be reasonable-sounding and easy to defend, while the other similar one will bear much more controversy. The former being a costume (often virtuous) the arguer is wearing, while the latter constituting the actual objective of malicious intent on the part of a deceptive arguer. When attacked, the arguer will contend that his opponent opposes the more reasonable version of his position, and drop discussion of the less reasonable one.

Mystery Monger – an individual who gatekeeps and wallows in the ignorance and mystique surrounding a fringe subject; who habitually dismisses any reductive, deductive or falsifying scientific study regarding that topic. Often purporting to (breaking from their normal habit) hold final scientific authority, ‘peer review’ or proof that the reductive, deductive or falsifying evidence can be completely dismissed (suddenly there is no mystery). Exploits the general public’s lack of knowledge about the subject they represent, in order to perpetuate and market the mystery and their central ‘investigator’ role therein. This type of smoke and mirrors professional is usually making a living from the mysterious subject under consideration.

Naive Cynicism – expecting more egocentric bias in others than in oneself.

Naive Realism – the belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don’t are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased.

Nakano School Skeptic – a skeptic who is still ignorantly fighting an old argument or pushing an old understanding decades after a paradigm shift, change in scientific consensus or new information set has been brought to light. Derived from the Nakano School Japanese soldier, Hiro Onoda, who was found on an island still fighting World War II, 29 years after the war had ended.

Narrative Ninny – a simpleton who believes that automatically adhering to what they have heard is the ‘official truth’, exhibits a superior level of erudition on their part, along with an exclusive monopoly in scientific reason. A fool who is conditioned to be automatically vulnerable to authoritative deception or an official narrative, who habitually allies with any apparent position of power, and is willing to incrementally prevaricate because the virtue of their cause more than makes up for their lie in support of it. A repetitive process passed from Narrative Ninny to Narrative Ninny, through which a stack of such (permissible) lies transforms into The Narrative. The opposite of a conspiracy theorist, save for their holding a reality shaped by zero research or logic in support their ‘position’.

negare attentio Effect – the unconscious habituation of a person seeking publicity or attention in which they will gravitate more and more to stances of denial, skepticism and doubting inside issues of debate, as their principal method of communication or public contention. This condition is subconsciously reinforced because they are rewarded with immediate greater credence when tendering a position of doubt, find the effort or scripted method of arguing easier, enjoy shaming and demeaning people not similar to their own perception of self or presume that counter-claims don’t require any evidence, work or research.

Negative Reactance –  an Aristotelian posturing wherein one, upon confrontation with objectionable principles, thereafter embraces the opposite of such objectionable principles, avoiding any possible middle path or other rational option – as a defensive reaction to such objectionable principles. If one adopts a set of tenets or a lie of allegiance, even if that set of beliefs does not qualify as a religion in and of itself, solely as a reaction to a religion one has departed from recently or in the past, and/or as a way of seeking revenge or retribution or cathartic reward over past hurts and regrets regarding one’s membership in the former religion – then one is simply operating inside a duality and indeed has simply adopted another religion.

Nelsonian Knowledge – A precise and exhaustive knowledge, about that which one claims is not worth examining. No expertise is so profound in its depth as that expertise prerequisite in establishing what not to know. Such Nelsonian knowledge takes three forms:

1. a meticulous attentiveness to and absence of, that which one should ‘not know’,
2. an inferential method of avoiding such knowledge, and finally as well,
3. that misleading knowledge or activity which is used as a substitute in place of actual knowledge (Nelsonian Displacement).

The former (#1) is taken to actually be known on the part of a poseur. It is dishonest for a man deliberately to shut his eyes to principles/intelligence which he would prefer not to know. If he does so, he is taken to have actual knowledge of the facts to which he shut his eyes. Such knowledge has been described as ‘Nelsonian knowledge’, meaning knowledge which is attributed to a person as a consequence of his ‘willful blindness’ or (as American legal analysts describe it) ‘contrived ignorance’.

Neti’s Razor – the principle which serves to cut nihilism as a form of belief, distinct from all other forms of atheism as either philosophy or belief. From the Sanskrit idiom, Neti Neti (not this, not that): one cannot produce evidence from that which at a point did or will not exist, to also demonstrate that nothing aside from that entity therefore exists.

Neuhaus’s Law – where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed. Skepticism, as a goal in and of itself will always escalate to extremism.

Newman’s Doctrine – a resilience on the part of one’s victim in no way serves to exonerate the immorality of one’s crime. The resulting benefits in terms of wisdom, resilience and strength on the part of the victim, in no way serves to justify the decision to enact a harm upon that victim. What makes you stronger is not therefore forgiven in its attempt to kill you. (See Bastiat Fallacy).

Nickell Plating – employing accoutrements and affectations of investigation work (field trips, cameras, notebooks, sample bags, etc.), along with an implicit appeal to authority as a skeptic (appeal to skepticism) in an attempt to sell one’s self as conducting science. A social celebrity pretense of investigation, and established authority through a track record of case studies, wherein adornment of lab coats, academic thesis books, sciencey-looking instruments and the pretense of visiting places and taking notes/pictures, etc was portrayed by a posing pseudo-skeptic. In reality the nickell plater is often compensated to ‘investigate’ and socially promote one biased explanation; dismissing the sponsored hypothesis from being considered by actual science research. This is an active part of an embargo process, and was a technique which replaced debunking after it fell from public favor.

Nihilism (or Sol-Nihilism) – is a philosophical doctrine that suggests the negation of one or more of the reputedly meaningful or non-material aspects of life. Socially enforced metaphysical or pseudo scientific naturalism. The religious belief that only such physical life on Earth is relevant, and that the conscious, spiritual, values or intent sets all reduce solely to the material. The substitution ontology which took the place of Abrahamic Religion in Western academia. The cult and religious doctrine enforcing absolute knowledge as to those things which are deemed ‘natural;’ moreover dictating that nothing exists outside the materials, energies, life forms, features and principles comprised inside an a priori defined and professionally compulsory domain of understanding. A religious presumption that only the physical is real, and that the mental or spiritual can be reduced solely to the physical. A presumption that all observations of phenomena related to consciousness stem from solely a neural configuration of a single biological source. This extraordinary array of claims is justified through specious, scant predictive and selective application of the experimental method; attributing its false empirical basis to a pretense standard of evidence, measurability and repeatability. Rather, Nihilism is an unsubstantiated set of pseudo-scientific claims, misconstrued as atheism and subtly conflated with and pork-barreled inside actual science. It is employed as an instrument to squelch freedom of speech, squelch knowledge through vigilante bullying in the name of skepticism, qualify entrants into scientific and academic professions, screen topics under an embargo policy regarding access to science, control and direct institutions, establish social power; and in similar fashion to its Abrahamic religious precedent, leverage the resulting pervasive ignorance into a position of absolute subjugation of mankind.

Nihilist Romanticism – as Nietzsche cites, Fundamental Nihilism is moot.  As we not only may choose, but without exception have chosen as a mandate, to artificially and personally modify Fundamentalist Nihilism as the conscious will of our skeptical, empirical or secular thinking, or self illusion of such, might deem acceptable.

Nonaganda – (see Evidence Sculpting or Skulptur Mechanism) a media which does no real investigation, relates 100% accurate fact or even does ‘fact-checking’, yet still ignores 50% of relevance concerning an issue, is still fake news.

Non-merchandising Defense Error – claiming correctness on your part or incorrectness on another party’s part because merchandising or product sales have been conducted in the name of the opposing idea. Anything can be merchandised, that does not de-legitimize the underlying issue involved – but fraud is a tort, even if you do not merchandise it.

Numptured/Numptant/Numpty – a person who is educated or intelligent enough to execute a method, memorize a list of key phrases/retorts or understand some scientific reasoning, yet is gullible or lacking in circumspection to where they are unable to understand the applicable deeper meaning/science, the harm they cause nor their role in being manipulated inside propaganda. A numptant, or ‘numpty’ can be discerned through the number of subjects about which they like to argue. This indicating a clear preference not for any compassion or concern regarding any particular subject; rather the superior nature of their own thinking, argument, adherence to rationality and compliance inside any topic in which they can demonstrate such. Science, or the pretense thereof, is a handy shield behind which to exercise such a neurosis.

Obtollence – (The Principle of Ethical Skepticism) – Latin ob – against, plus tollens – denial. Fake skeptics love to ply their wares in proving an absence (Hempel’s Paradox) – applying science to deny that things exist (prove the null, or prove absence); when such activity is unethical, impossible or even unnecessary. They seek to remove any question of modus indifferens (the neutrality of skepticism) at all costs. An ethical researcher avoids any form of Hempel’s Paradox – whereas a fake researcher dwells in it most of the time.

One Upper – a person who, no matter what case or experience you may relate, has always seen/experienced worse or performed better.

The Paradox of Virtue – a decision condition wherein uncertainty or unknowns force one risk (its mitigation most often associated with social virtue) to be served at the expense of all other risks, both known and unknown. The known risk-mitigation is promoted until a Tau Point inflection is reached and decision makers realize that another risk is now showing to have been greater, and reveals our actions to have been a mistake. Usually the cost of the under-served risk is many times higher than the virtue-served risk would have cost if left alone to begin with. There is no ‘good’, there is only evil and not-evil. Under a Paradox of Virtue, those who try to enforce virtuous good, fail for having boasted unreasonable claims of God-level knowledge or power on their part. They end up causing more harm, than good.

parafonía – the circumstance wherein a person, organization, or club has ceded fealty to, is financially or critically dependent upon, or has based their future viability upon a principle or organization which is showing to be increasingly unacceptable over time. The stark or sudden realization that one has hitched their wagon to the wrong team of horses. The dawning realization on a person’s part that one is in fact a member of a criminal enterprise or organization.

Pathologizing – establishing a ‘halo of condemnation’ around a subject or person as a first step of deliberation inside a social context. A term framed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Skin in the Game. It is what fake skeptics and other forms of poseur do to disliked subjects (‘pseudosciences’) and to persons (‘woo believer’) who research them. A true skeptic is a friend, not an enemy. They tend to be specific on help, encouraging on subject and mute on persons, personal habits, eccentricities and preferences. What fake skeptics and poseurs (Nassim Taleb’s Intellectual Yet Idiot- IYI) do is to pathologize persons who act differently than do they, and subjects they fear or dislike. They focus on person and personal traits and not upon prosecuting the subject at hand. Aside from standing in the gap when pathologizing emerges – fakers focus upon foibles.

Pejorative Appeal to Ignorance – when one raises a question in a media or social context, which by its mere asking serves to bring under suspicion or impugns the character of another person, regardless of what its ultimate determination turns out to be. A method of character assassination disguised as mere ‘fact checking’.

per virtutem odi – a person who conceals and exercises their hate of those different than them through the adoption of a virtuous facade supportive of an issue which serves the facile good in one matter or to one group, however which bears an element of harm to the group whom they just also happen to hate. Usually this type of compromised character will adopt a series of meaningless ‘virtues’, inside which the only commonality that exists pertains to whom those causes will serve to harm, and not any particular heart for the causes themselves. Such animus patterns will cause people of this hate grouping to also cluster into clubs of supposed virtue (Antifa, skeptics, progressives, etc.) – most of their time spent not in support of the cause célèbre issue, rather pointing out and opposing those whom the cause will affect negatively (i.e. ‘skeptics’ only care about science when it disadvantages those whom they hate, the religious, etc.). See virtue signaling.

Perdocent – from Latin perdoceo – teach, educate, drill, train. The state of pretense, lack in diligence, or intellectual compromise wherein one bears an inability to learn and apply, outside the context of a course of instruction. One who follows a procedure well and can pass an exam, however lacks true erudition or ability to recall or apply their learning. The belief that legitimate learning can only occur in an academic structured environment. The opposite of an autodidact or antonym of autodidactic. Also a method of rhetorical argument, in that one may claim that they have not been taught something, so therefore it is invalid or does not exist.

The Philosopher’s Tell – a heuristic for testing a philosopher along the following lines:

1. Most ancient and classical philosophers produced ideas which can be simply and organically derived through just living an effective life.

2. Recitation of a classic philosopher serves only as a means to back an idea one already derived organically on their own.

3. Classic philosophy therefore, is a course on appeal to authority derived simply in an a priori context (education), or a posteriori context (autodidact).

If a philosopher cannot show a life story which exemplifies the principle, then they really do not understand the principle and it is only academic knowledge.

The Philosopher’s Test – it is said that knowledge may be obtained through study, yet wisdom is attained through arduous and complete life. Beware of those who suggest they obtained wisdom from study. Four unsound agencies which can hide and masquerade inside the art of philosophy – or why the qualifications of a philosopher are important:

1. To promote self as a celebrity/preeminent teacher
2. To prove the existence of your God/Pantheon
3. To assert Nihilism as truth
4. To establish the power of one group over another.

Planck Acceptance – acceptance of a persistent construct or theory simply through the passing of the skeptics who denied it. Derived from Maxwell Planck’s citing that a truth is never accepted until its opponents die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Poe – assuming that Poe’s Law will afford one the luxury of comically or fanatically masquerading as a ridiculous straw man or extreme characterization of a member of a disliked camp of thinking.

Post Stockholm Syndrome – a condition wherein a hostage, more than simply developing an affinity for captor, begins to develop amnesia about their state being hostage in the first place. Under such a condition, maintenance of this amnesia becomes the preeminent priority.

Press Box Poser – pretending to be competent to critique, represent or act as an authority in an industry or discipline, when in fact one has never conducted a study, application research, formulated policy, run a business in, employed people in, filed a patent in, or otherwise conducted any diligent professional activity in the critiqued topic discipline.

Price’s Law – a principle similar in framework to a Pareto Curve, constructed by Derek J. de Solla Price which states that half the literature on a subject comes from the square root of all contributors to that subject. Thus, if 100 skeptic articles are written by 25 authors, five authors will have contributed half of that body’s of material. A principle which cites that much of a body of understanding is in actuality only developed by a handful of people – as authority.

Price’s Law of Asymmetry – Asymmetry involving Prices Law which states that that the most extreme views contained inside the minority of publications inside a body of published material under Price’s Law represent the locus of conclusion or exclusions of 95% of that body of material.

Principle of Peerhood – (‘peer’ is a word derived from nobility ranking and matching) – I shall not tell an epidemiologist his business, unless he infers from his work that I should necessarily undertake a harm or ruin – at that point, I am now a peer. The stakeholder placed at risk is the peer review.

Professional Victim – a person who seeks to leverage to their financial, intellectual or social advantage a perception of being a victim of some action on another stakeholder’s part. The purpose is to simultaneously injure the targeted stakeholder and at the same time enrich the purported victim. Such a method becomes habitual and increases in shrillness over time if left unchecked. A professional victim is in reality the abuser.

Proxy Proselyte – a newly indoctrinated person possessing an energetic Pollyanna vulnerability (see the Ten Pillars), along with a lack of depth, experience and circumspect wisdom; who is exploited into a role of win-at-all-costs enlistment under the cause identified by a God Proxy.

Pseudo Scientific Naturalism – when one employs or implies furtive hyperbole as to what science has concluded, eliminated, disproved or studied, foisted to proactively preclude one’s personal belief set from being qualified as a religion.

Pyrrhic Victory – an expression attributed to King Pyrrhus of ancient Greece, wherein a battle win against the Romans cost him so dearly that he is purported to have said, “If we win another such battle against the Romans, we will completely lose.” A form of ‘Winning the battle but losing the war’, a Pyrrhic victory occurs when the toll taken in winning a battle is so severe that the benefit of the win does not offset its entailed losses.

qualitas clava Error – club quality error. The presumption on the part of role-playing or celebrity-power-seeking social skeptics that their club or its power, is important in ensuring the quality of science and scientific understanding on the part of the broader population. The presumption that external club popularity and authority, lock step club allegiance and presumptive stacks of probable knowledge will serve to produce valid or quality outcomes inside scientific, rational or critical thought processes. The pretense of encouraging skepticism, while at the same time promoting conclusions. Such thought fails in light of time proven quality improvement practices.

quo facto malo – Latin for ‘having done this evil’. When a person desires to do evil to another, they will manufacture or fantasize in their mind, offenses their target has committed, which serve to therefore justify their actions; harm which they had conducted or intended to conduct from very beginning, but were simply waiting for the right excuse to blame it upon.

‘The Reason’ Fallacy – with human beings, the reason why something is done or stands in effect, is rarely the real reason for it.

Recidivism – a tendency, despite personal perception or intention otherwise, to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior when the spotlight is removed from a person who is posing as a skeptic or virtue signalling.

Red Shirt Syndrome – a belief that injury/calamity/ruin only happens to other people (those in red shirts on Star Trek – The Original Series) or those who deserve it for some subconsciously held reason. Ignorance of the principle that a pervasive systemic injury happens to almost everyone exposed to it, to varying degrees, and not merely to the unfortunate few. It is just the few who are indeed detected or measured.

Rent-Seeking – a version of appeal to authority, coined by Nassim Taleb, in which a person derives income simply because they are touted as an authority, or hold a position inside an organization with such authority, or hold a bureaucratic or power influence over the administration of assets/money – drawing unjustly thereof. Under such a model of value chain theory, even the rental of an asset involves some risk – however the principle hinges more around the idea that, for every dollar of compensation an equal and opposite flow of value should be provided. In similar context this is the origin of the statement of ethical skepticism ‘Risk is the leaven of the bread of hard work. Beware of those who’s trade is in neither.”

Rhetosophy – Rhetoric disguised as philosophy; wherein the arguer conceals his subject of contention and crafts the philosophy to appear as a stand alone ethic, independent of the point he is surreptitiously attempting to persuade.

Richeliean Appeal to Skepticism – an inflation of personal gravitas, celebrity or influence by means of implicit or explicit threats of coercive tactics which can harm a victim one wishes to be silenced. Coercive tactics include threats to harm family, contact employers, tamper with businesses, employment of celebrity status to conduct defamation activities or actions to defraud, or otherwise cause harm to persons, reputation or property. This includes the circumstance where a Richeliean skeptic encourages and enjoys a form of ‘social peer review,’ empowered via politics or a set of sycophants who are willing to enact harm to a level which the Richeliean power holder himself would not personally stoop.

The Riddle of Nelsonian Knowledge – it behooves the holder of Nelsonian knowledge to know more about this embargoed knowledge than would be reasonably expected inside standard ignorance. The irony with Nelsonian knowledge is that it demands of its ‘ignorant party’ a detailed awareness of schema, its depth and a flawless monitoring, which is unparalleled in official knowledge. If our desire to avoid so-called ‘baseless pseudoscience’ is as casual as we imply; casual to such an extent so as to justify our complete disinterest in it as a species, then why is our knowledge of specifically what is forbidden-to-study, so damned accurate and thorough? If it is all worthless fodder, then why are its opponents so well organized, trained and armed?

The Riddle of Virtue – competence is the only virtue. Those who do not understand this, are doomed to wear virtue as a costume.

Road to Damascus Fraud – a person of weak integrity, who is seduced by one philosophy and extols it through practices of vehemency, virtue or deception, who then switches to the exact opposite philosophy and thereafter uses similar tactics and/or intensity of fanaticism – is not to be trusted. They have not ‘seen the light’. Their conversion is not evidence of validity of their latter philosophy, nor evidence of the invalidity of the former.

Rupert’s Axiom of Reason – you cannot reason a person out of a stance which they obtained through thinking they held the sole monopoly on reason to begin with.

Sacred Citizen Complex – the regard of self or of others, defined by some characteristic such as race, skin color, religion, gender or other special status, as being exempt from laws, ethics, morals or other strictures of normal society – simply because of that characteristic or some form of history or institution of injustice they base such exemption upon. The idea that certain persons can be racist/bigoted but others cannot – simply because of such a characteristic.

Sargon’s Law – whenever an ideologue makes a character judgement about someone they are debating with, that character judgement is usually true about themselves.

Schadenfreude/Epicaricacy – schadenfreude is the enjoyment of witnessing the misfortune of others through their own mistake, accident or self inflicted agony. In contrast, epicariacy is the enjoyment of witnessing the harm one individual receives at the hands of another, usually maliciously-minded party. The similar English expression would be ‘Roman holiday’, a metaphor from the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by George Gordon (Lord Byron) wherein a gladiator in ancient Rome expects to be “butchered to make a Roman holiday,” i.e. the audience would take pleasure from watching his forced suffering at another’s hands. The term suggests motives of pleasure or political expediency beyond simple schadenfreude; consisting more of debauchery and exploitation for gain in addition to sadistic enjoyment. One exception to both meanings, and common mistake in their application however, is citing schadenfreude or epicariacy in the case where one is witnessing a temper tantrum. Temper tantrums are intended forms of violence upon others, and in no way reflect a person being in a state of misfortune or harm.

¡science! – lying through tendering the appearance of being scientific (pseudoscience). A process made to look like science, which is 25% assumption, 25% outdated or semi-relevant study, 25% derision and bullying and 25% false claims to consensus. Partly testing a favored hypothesis and declaring it true, coupled with blocking of testing on competing ideas and declaring all of them false or pseudoscience.

Science as the Sciences Error – constrained misdefinition and equivocation of the word science to, rather than the method and body of knowledge development, a restrictive domain of the academic sciences alone. This so that skepticism is free to be now errantly applied ‘outside of science’ by anyone who chooses.

Science Communicator – as distinct from a journalist or investigative reporter. In totalitarian societies a ‘communicator’ is a emergent stage of progressive takeover and indoctrination, which offers the population time to step into line. The communicators arrive before the enforcement officials, who arrive before the Maršal (Marshals), who arrive before the military police; whereupon absolute control of rule is enforced, usually under a dictator. A science communicator is not a recognized entity in a free press.

Scientific Shilliteracy – a claim to scientific authority, which is belied through display of scientific ineptness.

Scooby-Doo Scientist – a mindset born by fake skeptics wherein every mystery is easily resolved by current science understanding or the pretense that science has studied a subject when it has not – a ‘science’ which also features a convenient ability to highlight the bad person in the argument – usually of a consistent gender and ethnicity.

Segal’s Law – a man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

Shibboleth – is any custom or tradition, particularly a speech pattern, that distinguishes one group of people (an ingroup) from disliked or targeted ‘others’ (outgroups). Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwords, catch phrases, simple ways of self-identifying, signaling loyalty and affinity, maintaining traditional segregation or keeping out perceived interlopers.

Silence Denial Fallacy – those who will deny one their silence, privacy or dissent, are in reality attempting to deny one their very existence.

simulans legatus – when purposely positioning one’s self inside a group of the most extreme members of an opposing group of thought, one can simply present a statesmanlike posture and akratically troll the community, thereafter highlighting only the natural absurd, abusive and fanatical extreme responses of the opposing side.  All while maintaining a calm rational composure in contrast. A passive sales technique and method of misrepresentation of both your and their groups, capitalizing on combative habituation and the fact that there is always an extreme 8% in any group.

Skepid – a state of being achieved by a skeptic who joins a club seeking to enforce rationality, critical thinking or reason, wherein they lose the ability to be circumspect, question their own club and further then adopt a belief in the effectiveness of club quality. A creeping stupidity and ignorance encroaches on such an individual, blinded by their assumed superiority, bandwagon and cheerleader effects and the convincing tricks of methodical cynicism and inverse negation.  Essentially so skeptical that they become stupid.

Skeptical Integrity Tell – a skeptic who has examined them self first, should never seek out dispute, fail to seek some essence of understanding, straw man, used canned explanations and party agendas, find entertainment in argument nor mock objective dissent in order to provide an ideological advantage for favored views. Instead, the seasoned skeptic should actually go into the field and dispassionately observe, be an autodidact despite their education background, bear new thoughts along with a compassion for those harmed, foremost. These are the sign posts on the road less traveled by; the telltale sign of whether on not one is a true skeptic.

Skeptical Psychologist’s Fallacy – an opponent presupposes the objectivity of his own Skeptical position when analyzing a behavioral event on the part of others.

Skeptic’s Tell – one who’s boots bear the mud of the road less traveled by, should carry also a loam of ideas less thought of.

Skeptive Dissonance – the difficult to articulate or grasp, cognitive discomfort experienced upon one’s first perception of the disconnect between fake skepticism and real or effective science.

Skereto Curve/Rule – a condition wherein 99% of the skeptics are focused on and obsessing over 1% of the problem.

Social Desirability Bias – the tendency to over-report socially desirable characteristics or behaviors in one self and under-report socially undesirable characteristics or behaviors.

Social Inversion – a condition wherein the people who say and do the right things, look the right part, use the proper words, become the elite and/or are members of the right party/club and clothe themselves in proper method and virtues – tend to produce the most ineffective outcomes or even detrimental results. In contrast, those who can never seem to say, do, be or in any way portray things which are correct or socially acceptable in the eyes of the correct group, tend to produce better results or at the least results which are not as calamitous as the correct group.

Social Peer Review – a process of acting on behalf of science, and pretense of conducting science, encouraged by celebrity skeptics – where in one presumes that by declaring themselves to be a skeptic, any critique they offer towards a disliked subject, pseudoscience or person is therefore now tantamount to application of scientific peer review. Usually backed by the Richeliean power of celebrities or social skepticism itself.

Sophistry Fallacy – when a poorly skilled or experienced philosopher loses an argument, they will inevitably resort to an accusation of sophistry on the part of their opponent. They may not even grasp the fact that their ‘opponent’ is not even an opponent at all; rather a peer simply seeking to issue a word of caution, not disagreement. Caution which they interpret to be a threat; an advisement they possess a dearth of intellect with which to grasp.

1. One introduces the philosophical level of discussion in the first place,
2. One banks on the assumption that no one else is around who is sufficiently skilled to discuss the issue (an appeal to self-authority),
3. One perceives a word of open-minded skeptical caution, incorrectly as an argument in opposition,
4. One perceives (correctly or incorrectly) that an inner hypocrisy is now potentially exposed and they are now in danger of losing the argument which they started,
5. The discussion resides now at a level above the original claimant’s intellectual or experiential capacity, and
6. Its last recourse argument is foisted, after exhausting all other memorized arguing scripts (save for the sophistry claim itself).

Sowell’s Axiom – a quip credited to American economist and social theorist, Thomas Sowell, which states that ‘It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others’.

SSkeptic (Social Skeptic) – a member of an elite Cabal which practices and teaches Deskeption, who’s members also falsely identify themselves as ‘skeptics.’ SSkeptics are self or institutionally appointed activists, posing as rational and logical subject matter experts on a broad variety of topics in which they have performed shill research; with the objective of vitiating all targeted unwelcome thought sets. Far from actually practicing skepticism or science, SSkeptics seek to intimidate others through social enforcement practices promoting a specific cabalistic religion. A religion featuring key mandatory doctrines lacking scientific basis, imperiously passed to the public as unassailable truth.

SSkepticism Projection Fallacy – when one fails to apply skepticism, and default considers the way the Social Skepticism movement sees the world as the way the world really is.

Stein’s Law – if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. If misinformation cannot go on forever, there is no need for action or a program to make it stop, much less to make it stop immediately; it will stop of its own accord.

Stooge Posing – attacks on piece of data or an easily disprovable topic of credulity used as an effort to bolster an opponent’s record of debunking success and club ranking. This reputation to then further allow for irrelevant and unmerited gravitas in addressing other arguments where data and observation do not support the goals of the opponent.

Straw Man Conundrum – when one habitually misrepresents their opponents, the question arises: Does this stem from a shortcoming in effort, or a shortfall in acumen?

Streisand Effect – the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.

Subception – a perceptual defense that involves unconsciously applying strategies to prevent a troubling stimulus from entering consciousness. The method of deceiving one’s self and others in the process of cynicism, jealousy or denial. A process of expressing unrealized subconscious vitriol, in which one habitually creates artificial ‘violations’ (usually forms of administrative or social protocol which their target ‘does wrong’) which their target of jealously or hate keeps committing – in order for the subception holder to internally justify their ill feelings toward their target.

Superior Grasp of the Obvious – the bias on the part of one concealing a rational ego which has been inflated to enormous levels. Levels of ego betrayed by implication and oxymoron that one’s self is the only person who could possibly grasp that which is readily obvious inside complex questions. In fact, a prowess of such potential that the mastery of the obvious can be done from a university cubicle or parents’ basement, and in 4 minutes of research.

Taleb’s Law of Abundance – Abundance is harder for us to handle than scarcity. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Tau Point Man (Person) – one who makes their cleverness or contempt manifest. Based upon the tenet of ethical skepticism which cites that a shrewdly apportioned omission at Point Indigo, an inflection point early in a system, event or process, is a much more effective and hard to detect cheat, than that of more manifest commission at Point Tau, the tipping point near the end of a system, event or process. Based upon the notion ‘Watch for the gentlemanly Dr. Jekyl at Point Tau, who is also the cunning Mr. Hyde at Point Indigo’. It outlines a principle wherein those who cheat (or apply their skill in a more neutral sense) most effectively, such as in the creation of a cartel, cabal or mafia – tend do do so early in the game and while attentions are placed elsewhere. In contrast, a Tau Point man tends to make their cheat/skill more manifest, near the end of the game or at its Tau Point (tipping point).

Tendentious – showing agency towards a particular point of view, especially around which there is serious disagreement in the at-large population. The root is the word ‘tendency’, which means ‘an inclination toward acting a certain way.’ A tendentious person holds their position from a compulsion which they cannot overcome through objective evaluation. One cannot be reasoned out of, a position which they did not reason themselves into to begin with.

The Left Pole – a political point held by fake skeptics, relative to which any differing opinion in any direction is considered therefore right wing, alt-right, anti-science, racist or phobic.

Thunder Chamber – an appeal to authority version of echo chamber, much more imperious in its insistence and intimidating in its effect. A club of science communicators – catalyseurs seeking conflict between laypersons and scientists, to enable furtherment of their power as a furtive liaison therein.

TLDR – “I don’t have the attention span or even mental capacity to grasp Dr. Seuss, much less this. Please tender me a one-liner or idiom, because, if you want me to understand, you must pose your point in buckets of something with which I am already familiar.”

Trait Ascription Bias – the tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior, and mood while viewing others as much more predictable.

Transcendental Substitution Bias – when one holds a compulsion to not to participate in traditional social institutions which promote brotherhood, tribal union or spiritual values; and instead substitute non-traditional institutions one finds as more acceptable.  Passing such a proclivity off as justifying a delusional superiority.

Trashionality – the false claim by SSkeptics that they represent the position of science or critical thinking on a topic. A pretense made by a SSkeptic through application of intimidation, intimations as to personal brilliance and simple logical if-thens based on highly convoluted presumptive and furtive underpinnings, employed in lieu of actual scientific method, to preclude legitimate research or discourse around all Skeptic Cabal disfavored subjects.

vilis ex post facto – a principle of skepticism which contends regarding potential predators, ‘Don’t ask for an explanation, instead, just quietly watch what they do’. The predator has already rehearsed in their mind, the exculpatory reason for the harm they have enacted. It is their fruit which distinguishes them, not their explaining. Similar to the business apothegm. ‘Don’t complain, don’t explain’.

virgo sui – the principle of the virgin self; a psychology which exists as a counterpart to pathological mindsets inside immoral activity. A childish mind cannot accept nor recognize their own dark nature or nefarious actions. A criminal never thinks that they actually committed a/the crime, or may excuse it as justified in some way by means of society, the victim, being street smart or simply that this is the way of their world. A person who commits a wrong and immediately denies inside their own mind that they did it or are culpable. The opposite of repentance.

Virtue Signalling – the ironic principle entailed in the social observation that, prima facia ethics or normative ethics, virtue, religious precepts, morality, victimhood, identity warfare, personal conduct codes, etc. can, and often do serve as a cover for unethical agency masquerading under such pretenses. An action performed in accordance with socially correct pressure, or inside a visible boundary of political correctness, which is performed by a person wishing to show that they are on the good side in a political argument. Symbolic virtuous acts or positions adopted solely to build political power or exempt one from being accused of racism, bigotry, misogyny, greed or any of the canned talking attack points currently being fad utilized by the political left.

Whistleblower’s Irony – the same person who claims that ‘if conspiracy existed there would be whistleblowers’, is typically also the first person to publicly demean anyone who is a whistleblower.

Wicker Man Position – a position, as in the case of religion’s often being called ‘the ultimate strawman,’ where so many special exemptions are able to be pleaded or apologists habitually spin the idea that any critique offered towards their side constitutes strawman, ignorance or tu quoque errors – that the defended philosophy or position actually has no effective defining essence which can be pinned down in the first place.

Wiio’s Law – a failure in communication is never by accident. Communication usually fails, except by accident.

Wittgenstein Attribute by Exception – a condition wherein the definition of a concept, term, quality or attribute can only be objectively described by comparison to what it is not. A logical object which is exclusively tenable through outlining cases wherein it or its qualities are absent. Often framed by ‘I don’t know how to define it, but I know when I am in it’, for example; usually involving merely a personal standard of measure. Attempts to define as logical objects, concepts such as love, happiness, genuineness, good, enlightenment, etc. Two errors result from a positive logical object approach in defining this type of Wittgenstein attribute:

a. epistemological study or social deliberation of such qualities ends up being more equivocal, ineffective or subject to personal experience than is presumed beneficial, and​
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b. the pseudo-objective standards of such a definition, can be worn as a masquerade by entities which truly do not actually bear such concepts as qualities.​

Verschlimmbesserung – (German) to make something worse while trying to make it better. The fallacy of judging disasters by the measure that, those who bore the ‘good intentions’ should bear no fault, or place themselves as disconnected from the disaster.

You Can’t Wake Someone Who is Pretending to be Asleep – a principle which cites that a faking individual will never follow through with the traits of the disposition they are faking. A fake skeptic will draw conclusions on scant data and hearsay, as long as it conforms with what they believe. Or conversely in logic, mainstream media cannot be shocked to awareness by emergent news or observation inside something they are choosing to ignore in the first place.

The Ethical Skeptic, “The Tree of Knowledge Obfuscation: Misrepresentation of Self”; The Ethical Skeptic, WordPress; Web, https://theethicalskeptic.com/2009/09/24/the-tree-of-knowledge-obfuscation-misrepresentation-of-self/