Mainstream Neutrality Bias

The assumption that ideas circulated by mainstream institutions—major media outlets, established publishers, popular platforms—represent a neutral middle ground between fringe extremes. The Mainstream Neutralist treats the Overton Window as if it were reality itself, rather than a socially constructed range of acceptable debate. They forget that today's mainstream was yesterday's radical fringe and will be tomorrow's obsolete relic. The mainstream isn't neutral—it's just where power has currently settled.

"I just read the centrist newspaper—they're not biased like those crazy partisan sites," she said, unaware that her "centrist" paper had an editorial board, a corporate owner, and a demographic of readers whose interests shaped every story. Mainstream Neutrality Bias: when the middle of the road is still a road, built somewhere, going somewhere.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 22, 2026

Knowledge Bias

The systematic distortion that occurs because what we know shapes how we see. Unlike simple ignorance, which is absence of knowledge, Knowledge Bias is the skew introduced by the specific knowledge we do have. Learning economics makes you see market forces everywhere; learning psychology makes you see cognitive biases everywhere; learning trauma theory makes you see wounds everywhere. Each framework illuminates some things and casts shadows on others. Knowledge Bias isn't a failure—it's the inevitable cost of having any perspective at all. The question is whether you know your perspective's price.

"Ever since I learned about attachment theory, I see anxious and avoidant patterns in every relationship, including my goldfish." That's Knowledge Bias: when your tools shape what you're able to see, and also what you're unable to unsee.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 22, 2026

Unbiased Bias

The most dangerous bias of all: the fervent belief that you are completely free of bias. It's the epistemological equivalent of a fish discovering water and declaring it doesn't exist. The Unbiased Bias operates as a force field that makes genuine self-reflection impossible because why would you examine something you're certain you don't have? This meta-bias allows otherwise intelligent people to hold the most absurd positions with utter confidence, convinced that their views aren't opinions but simply reality speaking through them. Every criticism bounces off because criticism implies bias, and they're unbiased—checkmate.

"I'm not like those biased people—I just look at the facts logically," he said, moments before explaining why his childhood trauma, cultural conditioning, and economic self-interest had nothing to do with his political views. That's Unbiased Bias: the blind spot so large it becomes a worldview.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 22, 2026