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Evidence Double Standards

The hypocritical application of radically different levels of scrutiny and standards for accepting evidence based on whether the evidence supports or challenges one's preferred conclusion. Evidence for the favored view is accepted with minimal question, while evidence against it is subjected to impossible, moving-target demands for perfection.
Example: An activist accepts a single, methodologically shaky study showing benefits of their preferred policy as "proof," but demands five gold-standard, multi-decade, replicative studies before accepting any evidence of potential harms—a classic Evidence Double Standards maneuver.
by Dumu The Void February 4, 2026
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