Why nobody knows nothing: A Taxonomy of Error

By Christopher B. Daly 

What are the sources of ignorance, confusion, and false belief? They are many, and I am attempting to take a systematic approach to what I call “ways of un-knowing.” Please leave comments if you wish to contribute to this project.

      A TAXONOMY OF ERROR

Ways of un-knowing

 

GOVERNMENT

Actions/policies

Authorized leaks (“plants”)

Spin/ p.r.

Photo ops / official photographers

Propaganda (selective truths)

Over-classification of info

 

Censorship

Disinformation

Espionage/sedition prosecutions

Jailing journalists

 

 

CORPORATIONS

Advertising

Native ads

P.R.

Anti-disparagement clauses

Suppression of info (lung cancer, climate change)

 

 

 

ACADEMICS/THINK TANKS

Obscurantism

Political correctness

Tendentiousness

Catering to funding sources

Dogmatism

Evading peer review

 

 

JOURNALISM

Good faith

Mistakes/ typos

Incompleteness (partial truths)

Misperceptions

False equivalency/ automatic “balance”

Advocacy/partisanship (conscious bias)

Hyper-partisanship.

Tendentiousness (unconscious bias)

 

Bad faith

Native ads

Exaggeration/hype

“clickbait”

Aggregating false news

Slogans/memes / trolling

Hoaxes

Fake news for politics (Infowars)

Fake news for profit (Macedonia)

Lies (knowing falsehoods)

Disinformation