Fractal wrongness

[[File:Fractal-wrongness.jpg|thumb|right|165px|You're wrong there, and there, oh, and there too, there, now let's step back a little, yep, still wrong.]]
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{{cquote|You are not just wrong. You are wrong at every conceivable level of resolution. Zooming in on any part of your worldview finds beliefs exactly as wrong as your entire [[worldview]].||| Tatarize<ref>[http://godsnotwheregodsnot.blogspot.com/2008/02/motivation-poster-fractal-wrongness.html Motivation Poster: Fractal Wrongness.] (February 24, 2008) ''Blogspot: Ssnot!''</ref>}}
{{cquote|Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most [[insane]]ly idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a [[rational]] thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may [[God]] have mercy on your [[soul]].||| The principal in ''Billy Madison'',<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112508/characters/nm0235999 Billy Madison (1995): James Downey: Principal] ''IMDb''.</ref> an insanely idiotic movie, may God have mercy on its soul<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982623,00.html Sons of Wayne's World] by Richard Schickel (Mar. 06, 1995) ''Time''.</ref>}}
'''Fractal wrongness''' is the state of being [[wrong]] at every conceivable scale of resolution. That is, from a distance, a fractally-wrong person's [[worldview]] is incorrect; and furthermore, if you zoom in on any small part of that person's worldview, that part is just as wrong as the whole worldview.

The condition of [[crank magnetism]] is a gateway into the wonderful world of fractal wrongness, as well as a relatively early warning sign of the risk of impending fractal wrongness.

The term "fractal wrongness" may also be used to refer to someone who is consistently wrong on nearly everything they predict or claim. Repeatedly failing predictions is one of the best ways of revealing fractal wrongness, because while an idiotic [[worldview]] may work in someone's head, it can be seen failing when actually put to the test. Hilariously, people who are consistently wrong tend to be [[Dunning-Kruger effect|quite confident in their position while championing it]].

Fractally-wrong people are often immune to the [[Stopped clock|stopped clock rule]] because they are not exactly ''stopped'' clocks. More like clocks losing a [[random]] number of seconds a day, in the wrong time zone of the wrong [[planet]], in the wrong [[solar system]] in the wrong galaxy. And possibly in the wrong [[universe]] under the wrong laws of physics too.

==Origin of the expression==
The expression "fractal wrongness" apparently dates from around October 2001, when the then computer-science student Keunwoo Lee used it in a lexicon of computing.<ref>
[http://web.archive.org/web/20011128152100/http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/klee/misc/lexicon.html lexicon of computing] by Keunwoo Lee (Oct 21 15:50:00 PDT 2001) ''University of Washington'' (archived from November 28, 2001).</ref>

{{wpl|Benoît Mandelbrot}} coined the word "fractal" in 1975 to describe mathematical objects that look similar at all magnifications, and are thus characterised as having fractional (or fractal) dimensions. Mandelbrot subsequently found that such fractal objects are frequently found in nature.<ref>{{wpa|Fractal}}</ref> The phrase "fractal wrongness" is thus a [[metaphor]] deriving from a colloquial meaning of "fractal".

It is as impossible to convince a fractally-wrong person of anything as it is to walk around the edge of the {{wpl|Mandelbrot set}} in finite [[time]].

While arguing with these people can be amusing at times, if one ever get embroiled in a discussion with a fractally-wrong person on the [[Internet]]&nbsp;— in mailing lists, newsgroups, or forums&nbsp;— one's best bet is to say one's piece once and ignore any replies, thus saving oneself time.

==Examples==

{{cquote|
It really is just breathtaking the way he throws together totally unrelated terminology with this much confidence. What does one even do with this? It's like saying you need six hammer the ice cream to monkey of eleven dizzy.|}}
{{cquote|
Every time he speaks he's wrong in so many ways simultaneously that it's almost impressive[.] It's legitimately challenging to come up with sentences that are as wrong as [his]. It took me several minutes to write the monkey sentence, because I kept wanting to write things [that] accidentally make more sense than I wanted. |||[[Professor Dave]] Explains on Terrence Howard<ref>Terrence Howard is Legitimately Insane (Video); Time-stamp 19:34; 21:31 - 22:10 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWAyfr3gxMA&t=1519s] (May 24, 2024) ''Professor Dave Explains''</ref>}}

The hierarchical nature of fractals, and hence fractal wrongness, means that once crank magnetism begins to show organization, it also begins to show evidence of fractal wrongness. This is particularly apparent with [[Unified conspiracy theory|unified conspiracy theories]] (a.k.a. superconspiracies), which show hierarchies.<ref name=barkun>''A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America'' by Michael Barkun (2013) University of California Press, 2<sup>nd</sup> edition. ISBN 0520276825.</ref> Michael Barkun has cited [[David Icke]] (his [[lizard people]]), Valdamar Valerian (his Matrix series of books, particularly the diagramization in ''Matrix III, Volume One: The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological and Electromagnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness''), and [[Milton William Cooper]] (his book ''[[Behold a Pale Horse]]'') as examples of people who have created superconspiracies.<ref name=barkun/>

A further example is [[QAnon]], which originated in 2017, after publication of Barkun's book, ''A Culture of Conspiracy''. QAnon shows wrongness and/or [[bullshit]] at a variety of levels:
*Its origins in the bowels of the [[far-right]]/[[neo-Nazi]] bulletin boards [[4chan]] and [[8chan]]
*The frequently-incoherent ramblings and [[prediction]]s in the form of "Q drops" of one or more mostly-anonymous oracles known as "Q" (which have frequently been shown to be wrong)
*One of the more popular [[QAnon map dissection|QAnon map]]s looks like a pile of spaghetti linking the various subconspiracies. This map and other QAnon maps have been claimed to have some order.<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353882183_A_Conspiracy_of_Data_QAnon_Social_Media_and_Information_Visualization A Conspiracy of Data: QAnon, Social Media, and Information Visualization] by Matthew N. Hannah (2021) ''Social Media + Society'' 7(3):205630512110360. doi:10.1177/20563051211036064. E.g., see Figures 5 and 6.</ref> The sub-conspiracies show some rather ridiculous conspiratorial bedfellows (e.g., [[Jews]], [[Nazis]], and [[Catholics]]), and even subsumes at least one other superconspiracy ([[Pizzagate]]).

===List of fractally-wrong worldviews===
{{cquote|''Everything You Know Is Wrong''|||An album from the [[Firesign Theatre]] that spoofs [[pseudoscience]] and the [[occult]]}}
The following list includes some worldviews that are fractally wrong (and a brief example of why). Note that this is not meant to be exhaustive, and probably never will be, as any fallacious argument can be expanded into a fractally-wrong worldview:

* [[Alternative medicine]] (postulating generally nonsensical mechanisms by which it claims to achieve its purported effects)
* [[Ancient astronauts]], proposing that over 6,000 years of human history was actually ALIENS!!!!!
* [[Astrology]] (how exactly are the stars affecting/reflecting your love life or financial situation?)
* [[Christian fundamentalism]] (treating [[Noah's Ark]] is a plausible plot-device, [[Second Coming|among]] [[Failed biblical prophecies|many]] [[Creationism|other]] [[Problems with biblical inerrancy|things]])
* [[Flat Earth]] (no explanation needed)
* The [[Freeman on the land]] and [[sovereign citizen]] movements (the [[Pseudolaw|legal equivalent]] of "Badges? We don't need no {{wpl|Stinking badges|stinking badges!}}")
* [[Germ theory denial]] (blatantly ignores all medical science past the late 19<sup>th</sup> century in favor of nonsensical blabbering)
* [[Hindutva]] (generally the same nonsense as Christian fundamentalism, with the addition of asserting that modern scientific discoveries were ''totally'' found by Hindus 5,000 years ago without evidence.)
* [[Holocaust denial]] — claims that numerous scholars and politicians world-wide since World War II have agreed to present a false image of everything from European demographics to Nazi archives and soil conditions in Poland
* [[Homeopathy]] (because a belief in [[sympathetic magic]] and the idea that diluting something makes its effects ''more'' powerful just makes ''so'' much sense in 21<sup>st</sup> century medicine...)
* [[Islamism|Islamic terrorism]] (all the same nonsense as Christian fundamentalism, with a different religion, but many of the same regressive social hierarchies)
* Most [[New Age]] [[woo]] (general nonsensical incoherence)
* [[Racialism]] (still clinging to debunked [[pseudoscience]] decades out of date, with an extra helping of [[Other|treating people like trash for arbitrary reasons]])
* [[Scientology]] (a religion written by [[L. Ron Hubbard|an author]] of [[science fiction|science-fiction]] novels even worse than [[Ayn Rand]]'s books and a "[[theology]]" so nonsensical it could have been the plot of an {{wpl|Ed Wood}} film<ref group=note>It also started as [[Parody religion|a practical joke]] before Hubbard realized [[Charlatan|he could grift people with it]].</ref>)
* Any and all occult claims about [[tarot]] cards, which in reality were 
created
 
designed
 made for games much like any other cards, but thanks to the efforts of [[woo]]-peddlers, their true origin is forgotten in [[United States|certain countries]]

==="But it fits!"===
{{main|Shoehorning}}
Stephen Law has written about a form of shoehorning that people afflicted by fractal wrongness often use as a debate strategy, which he calls "But it fits!" (a.k.a., "Of course '[[they]]' ''would'' do that!"), in which a lack of evidence for a [[crank]] idea, or even evidence that directly contradicts it, can easily be turned on its head to support the same crank theory.<ref>[http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2011/12/believing-bullshit-chpt-2.html Law's Blog]</ref>

People who are believers in [[unified conspiracy theory|over-arching conspiracy theories]] often display traits of being fractally wrong, as every time that a point is refuted, it can be turned into further evidence that "they" ongoingly suppress the truth. In these cases, a complete lack of evidence for something is easily explained away as part of the conspiracy, and the lack of evidence for ''that'' is also nicely hidden. The same can be said of some believers in [[young earth creationism|young-earth creationism]], who view evidence contrary to their position as evidence of [[God]] testing their [[faith]]. There is no evidence that could be produced to convince such people that they may be wrong, and every level is nicely buffered against reality by more points in the fractal. The only conceivable way to fix their worldview would be to rewrite their brains entirely.

Law showed the problem with this kind of thinking when he told the story of a man who believes that [[dog]]s are [[alien]] spies from [[Venus]]. Any arguments his friends make as to why that can not be is turned around to work with the theory. For instance, when the man insists that there are transmitters in their brains, his friends reply that transmitters have never been seen in canine brains. The man replies that the transmitters are "made of organic material indistinguishable from brain stuff", so they are well hidden. Basically, cranks can use "But it fits!" to justify virtually anything.

===Turducken of bullshit===
The phrase "turducken of bullshit" was coined by Mike Rothschild, the author of several books about conspiracy theories, to represent something with three levels of bullshit. The term is based on the American culinary abomination known as a {{wpl|turducken}} of a chicken stuffed into a duck that is stuffed into a turkey, and then cooked and served. Rothschild applied it to the case of a "QAnon guru quoting [[Gateway Pundit]] quoting [[Rush Limbaugh]]".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191001214424/https://twitter.com/rothschildmd/status/1179149275424423937 A QAnon guru quoting Gateway Pundit quoting Rush Limbaugh. A turducken of bullshit.] by Mike Rothschild (2:41 PM - 1 Oct 2019) ''Twitter'' (archived from October 1, 2019).</ref> [[Rebecca Watson]] later applied the term to [[scam]]my [[dietary supplement]]s sold by the company Balance of Nature. The company sells pills called "Fruits", pills called "Veggies", and pills called "Fiber & Spice".<ref>[https://www.balanceofnature.com/ Balance of Nature]</ref> So if one believes their bullshit, then one doesn't have to suffer the burden of eating actual food, merely the burden of paying a [[quack]]<ref>[https://www.balanceofnature.com/our-story Our Story] ''Balance of Nature''.</ref> inflated prices. The company is owned by [[Scientologists]] who require that the mainly [[Mormon]] and [[Fundamentalist Mormonism|Fundamentalist Mormon]] employees take Scientology courses as part of their employment.<ref>[https://skepchick.org/2023/08/the-completely-bonkers-story-behind-this-scammy-supplement/ The Completely Bonkers Story Behind This Scammy Supplement] by  Rebecca Watson (Aug 31, 2023) ''Skepchick''.</ref>

==Dealing with the fractally wrong==
[[Debate|Debating]] a person who is fractally wrong leads to [[infinite regress]], as every [[Refuting|refutation]] you make of that person's [[opinion]]s will lead to a rejoinder, full of half-truths, leaps of poor [[logic]], and outright [[deceit|lies]], which requires just as much refutation to debunk as the first one&nbsp;— kind of like a recursive [[Gish Gallop]], where each point both surrounds and is surrounded by an equally wrong argument. It is worth noting that being fractally wrong can be handy for the losing side in a public debate, since you are likely to leave your opponent looking baffled and unable to deal with each level of wrongness.

==See also==
*[[Mike Bara]]
*[[Branches of science you have to ignore to believe in young Earth creationism]]
*[[Jan Brewer]]
*[[Conspiracy theory]]
*[[David Icke]]
*[[Not even wrong]]
*[[Rick Santorum]]
*[[The Spirit Science]]
*[[Time Cube]]
*[[Wronger than wrong]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KThlYHfIVa8 Everything You Know Is Wrong] by Weird Al Yankovic (YouTube), animated by RWappin &mdash; not for photosensitive epileptics

===How to talk to conspiracy theorists (likely applicable to the fractally wrong)===
*[https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/15/1004950/how-to-talk-to-conspiracy-theorists-and-still-be-kind/ How to talk to conspiracy theorists—and still be kind] by Tanya Basu
*[https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-54738471 How I talk to the victims of conspiracy theories] by Marianna Spring
*[https://theconversation.com/ive-been-talking-to-conspiracy-theorists-for-20-years-here-are-my-six-rules-of-engagement-143132 I've been talking to conspiracy theorists for 20 years – here are my six rules of engagement] by Jovan Byford
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/opinion/qanon-conspiracy-theories-family.html How to Talk to Friends and Family Who Share Conspiracy Theories] by Charlie Warzel
*[https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2020-10-16/tips-for-talking-to-the-conspiracy-theorist-in-your-life Tips For Talking To The Conspiracy Theorist In Your Life] by Maggie Mullen
*[https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/how-to-talk-with-family-about-conspiracy-theories.html How to Rescue Someone From a Conspiracy Theory] by Charles Duhigg
*[https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/08/26/how-to-talk-with-and-maybe-help-someone-who-believes-in-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories/ How To Talk With—And Maybe Help—Someone Who Believes In QAnon And Other Conspiracy Theories] by Lisette Voytko

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Logic]]

Categories: Logic