Confirmation Bias Realism

The pragmatic, Kant-informed position that while our reality is indeed filtered through innate and learned biases, this is realism for us. We cannot escape our confirmatory frameworks, so the "real" world is the one we collaboratively construct and confirm through shared biases (cultural, scientific, linguistic). Truth is a high-stability confirmation bias agreed upon by a community.

Example: The scientific method is the ultimate expression of confirmation bias realism. It doesn't claim to find bias-free truth, but a stable, inter-subjective truth by making our biases (hypotheses) explicit and rigorously testing them against a shared reality, creating a consensus confirmation that we accept as "real."

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Confirmation Bias of Everything

A philosophical dead-end stemming from a misreading of Kant, which asserts that all human perception and cognition is nothing but confirmation bias. Since we can never know the "thing-in-itself" (noumenon) and only interpret phenomena through our mental categories, this view claims every observation is simply confirming the pre-existing structures of our mind. It’s a radical skepticism that makes genuine learning or surprise impossible, reducing all experience to a tautological loop.

Example: After a surprising scientific discovery that overturns a theory, someone dismisses it by saying, "The new data only 'confirms' the scientists' hidden bias toward novelty. They were biased to find a change, just as the old guard was biased to find stability. It's all just confirmation bias of everything." This nihilistic take uses epistemology to void empirical evidence entirely.

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Debate Ping-Pong Game Bias

The dynamic where complex issues are forced into a binary, point-counterpoint format that artificially elevates extreme positions and marginalizes nuance. The "bias" is towards spectacle and conflict, rewarding the debater who delivers the cleverest "zinger" or most dramatic rebuttal, rather than the one who contributes most to collective understanding.

*Example: A cable news segment on climate change featuring a shouting match between a climate scientist and a professional contrarian. The host frames it as a "he said, she said" duel. The debate ping-pong game bias turns a 99% scientific consensus into a 50/50 spectacle, distorting public perception by privileging theatrical conflict over informational weight.*

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Logical Ping-Pong Game Bias

The tendency of a debate to devolve into a rapid, sterile exchange of formal logical charges ("straw man!" "non sequitur!" "ad hominem!") where scoring points on procedural grounds replaces engagement with substance. The "bias" is towards valuing the form of the argument as a game, making it impossible to discuss the underlying issue.

Logical Ping-Pong Game Bias Example: Two people debating economics rapidly descend into: "That's an anecdotal fallacy!" "You're attacking a straw man of my position!" "Your premise is circular!" The discussion dies as they become referees of a logical ping-pong game, more focused on catching each other's rhetorical fouls than on understanding the economic policy.

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Pragmatic Bias

The prejudice that favors immediate, practical, "what works" solutions over deeper systemic analysis or principles. It dismisses theory, ethics, or long-term vision as "ivory tower" thinking, while uncritically embracing short-term efficiency, even if it reinforces harmful structures. The bias assumes that practicality is neutral, ignoring that "what works" is defined by and for the existing power system.

Example: A city manager addresses homelessness not by examining housing policy or wage laws, but by funding more aggressive police sweeps of encampments. "We need to be pragmatic; people want clean parks now." This pragmatic bias chooses the immediately visible "solution" that pleases constituents, while actively worsening the root crisis.

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Homework Bias

The unfair advantage conferred upon arguments that are simply more time-consuming to refute than to state. It's the tactic of burying a claim under a mountain of citations, convoluted data, or obscure references, knowing that the effort required to unpack and debunk it is prohibitive. The argument gains credibility not from merit, but from the defensive labor it imposes.

*Example: An online post "proving" a fringe historical theory with 50 hyperlinks to self-published books, scanned archaic texts in untranslated German, and garbled statistics. Calling it out would require days of research. The homework bias shields the claim because its sheer, tedious bulk makes it functionally uncontested, allowing it to circulate as "researched."*

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026

Bias of Everything

The paralyzing, often disingenuous, insistence that because all perspectives are inherently biased (by culture, experience, etc.), no perspective can claim superior footing for understanding reality. This "meta-bias" is used to create false equivalence, arguing that since a historian and a conspiracy theorist both have biases, their claims deserve equal weight. It mistakes the universal condition of situatedness for the negation of rigor, evidence, or truth-seeking.

Example: In a climate debate, someone dismisses the IPCC's decades of peer-reviewed research by saying, "Your scientists are biased by grant money. My oil-funded blogger is biased too. It's all just bias. Nobody can know." The bias of everything argument is a thought-terminating cliché that elevates skeptical parity over the vast differentials in evidence, methodology, and reliability.

by Dumu The Void February 9, 2026