Theory of Personal Realities

The theory that everyone experiences reality through the lens of personal paradigms, personal opinions, political views, worldviews, and individual experience—that there is no unmediated access to reality, only reality-as-experienced-through-particular-perspectives. The Theory of Personal Realities doesn't deny that there is a world independent of our perceptions; it insists that our experience of that world is always shaped by who we are, where we stand, what we value. Two people can inhabit the same physical space and experience completely different realities because they bring different frameworks to the experiencing. Reality is one; personal realities are many.

Example: "They lived in the same house but experienced completely different realities. The Theory of Personal Realities explained why: he saw safety; she saw threat. He saw opportunity; she saw risk. Their frameworks shaped everything, made the same world into different worlds."

by Dumu The Void March 10, 2026

Argumentum Ad Realitatem

A form of Reality Bias where one invokes "reality" as a trump card, treating their position as simply how things are and any alternative as literally out of touch with reality. The fallacy lies in claiming direct access to the real while others are trapped in illusion, ideology, or wishful thinking—without demonstrating why one's own access is privileged. "You're not living in the real world" becomes a way of dismissing views one dislikes without engaging them. This fallacy allows the speaker to position themselves as the realist, the pragmatist, the one who sees things as they really are—while everyone else is merely dreaming.

Example: "He dismissed her policy proposals as 'not living in the real world'—never explaining why his preferred policies were any more realistic. Argumentum Ad Realitatem: using 'reality' as a cudgel rather than a standard."

by Dumu The Void March 16, 2026