Deceptionification

The act of explaining any non‑mainstream belief, practice, or experience as deliberate deception—fraud, charlatanism, lying. Deceptionification is common in debunking communities and anti‑pseudoscience activism. It assumes bad faith: believers are either deceivers or self‑deceived. It rarely considers that people might genuinely hold different worldviews, or that there might be honest disagreement about evidence. Critics argue that deceptionification is a form of intellectual paranoia: it sees fraud everywhere and cannot tolerate cognitive diversity. It also ignores the social and psychological functions of beliefs.

Deceptionification Example: “The skeptic deceptionified the faith healer as ‘a con artist stealing from the vulnerable.’ He never considered that the healer might believe in their own powers, or that patients might find genuine comfort.”

Deceptionification by Abzugal June 5, 2026