Badger's Law

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Badger's Law states that the content of any website which contains the word "truth" in its name or URL contains anything but that. The law states:

“”Websites with the word "Truth" in the URL have none in the posted content.

In practice, this means that websites with this word in their name and/or URL can be considered webshites. Citing such webshites as a credible source is in turn a violation of Scopie's Law. WorldTruth.TV is a prime example of this.

Badger's Law can less-reliably be applied to book and film titles; for example, yes to the book The Truth About Hillary and yes to Alex Jones' film The 9/11 Chronicles Part One: Truth Rising,[2] but no to the film An Inconvenient Truth and no to the book Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t.[3]

Origins[edit]

The law was named for a badger meme that was posted in April 2016 on Facebook by the admin of the page "Genetically Modified Humans for Monsanto"[4] and has since quickly been taken over by other pro-science pages.[5][6]

Extension[edit]

Badger's Law also seems to apply in the cases of certain other words:

Prevalence in the clogosphere[edit]

“”"Truth" is often added as part of the names of things, including websites and activist movements, and in written and spoken sentences so as to add greater emphasis much like exclamation marks are used. For example, the Truth Movement knows the Truth about Truth, including how all said in the mainstream media about it is lies. Think for yourself, and you'll agree. The Truth has been concealed but will be revealed by the Truth People, who include the authors of this article. Keep in mind, though, that the CIA will try to convince you that lies are truth and truth is lies, so be very careful. You'll know the Truth by its power when you find it, because nothing is like the Truth. Truth.
—How truth is used, Illogicopedia[7]

A scan of the questionable sources presented at Media Bias/Fact Check reveals many examples of Badger's Law. These webshites are all noted for extremist viewpoints and employ a full range of tactics typical of extremism: clickbait headlines, hate speech, lack of transparency, pseudoscience, political propaganda, conspiracy theories, and fake news. Examples include:

  • American Truth Today: A hyper-partisan extreme right conservative webshite that completely lacks transparency. Appears to be a personal blog run by someone named Jim Hayek.[8]
  • Blunt Force Truth: A blog hosted by long-time game show host Chuck Woolery. Extreme far-right bias, promotion of propaganda and conspiracy theories, republishes news from other hyper-partisan conservative sources.[10]
  • Grain of Truth: A far-right conservative news and opinion blog based somewhere in Canada. This webshite completely lacks transparency, as there isn’t an about page, authors are not named, and ownership is not disclosed.[11]
  • The Truth Voice: An extreme-right anti-Islam webshite, part of a network of webshites that all publish negative stories about Islam and attempt to paint a picture of Muslims as murderous and violent.[14]
  • Truth and Action: An extreme right wing webshite that caters content to preppers, gun nuts, and survivalists with healthy doses of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience.[15]
  • Truth Examiner: A far-left sensationalized "news" and opinion webshite full of clickbait headlines and poorly sourced information. Now offline.[16]
  • Truth in Media: A webshite owned by American television personality Benjamin Swann, that specializes in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Promoted the Sandy Hook and Pizzagate conspiracies, and spread false information related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]
  • Truth Social: The social media site by Donald Trump that crumbled badly when it launched in February 2022.[18] If it ends up anything like every single thing Donald Trump has ever done, it's safe to say that it won't contain much truth.
  • Truth Uncensored: An extreme far-right webshite featuring clickbait headlines, propaganda, and regurgitating crap from other questionable sources. Earned a misleading claim from Snopes.[19]
  • GrokAI (originally TruthGPT): A ChatGPT competitor dreamt up and later created by Elon Musk[20] that was originally meant to "understand the universe", which he mentioned after criticising the perceived "wokeness" of AI chatbots like ChatGPT.[21] Given the basic nature of GPT in general as a type of large language model, Musk's description was nonsensical technobabble, as an LLM has no mind, no agency, and no concept of truth vs. falsehood.
As of 2023, the website has a mascot that could be described as vaguely looking like a robo-badger,[22] and seems to be built primarily around trading cryptocurrency (including "$TRUTH") and NFTs, rather than providing information (truthful or otherwise).[23]

Examples of Badger's Law have a big presence in alternative media. One can easily spin the dial of a shortwave radio and come across such examples as:

  • Beacon of Truth: Evangelistic religious organization with a large footprint on shortwave radio.[24]
  • Beautiful Truth: A 9/11 truther that spent hours on end babbling about 9/11 conspiracy theories.
  • Radio Free Truth: A pretentious blowhard foisting his fundamentalist viewpoints onto the airwaves.[26]
  • Stairway Truth: An obscure preacher from Tennessee.
  • Table of Truth: "Brother Ben" presents a weird take on oddball religious fundamentalism. Seems to be weirdly fixated on Brother Stair.[27]
  • Truth, Light, and Life: An "international" ministry using radio to bore the hell out of people.[28]

There's even a radio station called "Truth FM" in rural western Maryland that spews all kinds of hate speech and incoherent Christian evangelism from an obscure sect called Calvary Chapel.[29]

Possible exceptions[edit]

Note that Badger's Law has exceptions; in particular, it does not apply recursively (for example, "example.com/blog/my-experience-with-foobartruth-dot-org" is probably an acceptable primary source about "foobartruth.org"). It applies less strongly when the URL is in the form of a question ("example.com/blog/is-frank-telling-the-truth-about-his-encounter-with-mr-badger"), as many such cases fall under the scope of Betteridge's law.

See also[edit]

Exceptions to the rule[edit]

Tumbleweed.gif

More seriously, there are actually some exceptions to the rule.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Badgers.
  2. ↑ The 9/11 Chronicles Part One: Truth Rising IMDb.
  3. ↑ Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t by Tom Phillips (2020) Wildfire. 1472263200.
  4. ↑ Genetically Modified Humans for Monsanto. Archived from Facebook, 30 April 2016.
  5. ↑ The Credible Hulk. Archived from Facebook, 30 April 2016.
  6. ↑ You.keep.using. Archived from Facebook, 30 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Truth, Illogicopedia
  8. ↑ American Truth Today, Media Bias Fact Check, 23 February 2020.
  9. ↑ Americans for Truth (AFTAH), Media Bias Fact Check, 4 February 2020.
  10. ↑ Blunt Force Truth, Media Bias Fact Check, 8 June 2021.
  11. ↑ Grain of Truth, Media Bias Fact Check, 5 October 2020.
  12. ↑ John Fredericks Radio Show, polluting the airwaves of the United States for over a month!
  13. ↑ Stone Cold Truth, Media Bias Fact Check, 21 August 2020.
  14. ↑ The Truth Voice, Media Bias Fact Check, 19 May 2021.
  15. ↑ Truth and Action, Media Bias Fact Check, 26 September 2020.
  16. ↑ Truth Examiner, Media Bias Fact Check, 16 November 2020.
  17. ↑ Truth In Media, Media Bias Fact Check, 22 April 2021.
  18. ↑ Drew Harwell, Trump’s Truth Social’s disastrous launch raises doubts about its long-term viability. The Washington Post, 22 February 2022.
  19. ↑ Truth Uncensored, Media Bias Fact Check, 16 November 2020.
  20. ↑ THE $TRUTH HAS BEEN REVEALED… TruthGPD (archived from February 21, 2023).
  21. ↑ Sawyer Merritt. Twitter, 17 April 2023.

    NEWS: @elonmusk says he is creating a maximum truth seeking AI chatbot called “TruthGPT” that tries to understand the nature of the universe.

  22. ↑ TruthGPT (archived from June 28, 2023).
  23. ↑ Introduction TruthGPT (archived from July 12, 2023).
  24. ↑ Radio broadcast schedule, Beacon of Truth Ministries International.
  25. ↑ Kingdom Identity Minsitries, Southern Poverty Law Center.
  26. ↑ Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digest, 6-081, June 1, 2006.
  27. ↑ Table of Truth Ministries, Brother Ben. thenetteam.net.
  28. ↑ About, Truth, Light & Life Ministries International.
  29. ↑ Truth FM 97.1. Calvary Chapel Cumberland Valley.
  30. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-truth-about-guns/
  31. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/exposing-the-truth/
  32. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-elkhart-truth/
  33. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/citizen-truth/
  34. ↑ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/truthdig/
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