Fallascientism

A self-refuting logical fallacy and meta-fallacy that declares any claim to be false or non-existent solely due to a lack of current scientific or empirical evidence, while willfully ignoring the inherent limitations of science, the scientific method, and empiricism itself. It commits the cardinal sin of scientism by making an absolute, unscientific philosophical claim—"only the scientifically verified is real"—and then wields it as a club to silence criticism, non-hegemonic viewpoints, and counter-hegemonic positions. It's a rhetorical power move disguised as rational rigor, used to protect dominant paradigms by dismissing entire categories of inquiry (like ethics, metaphysics, or subjective experience) as "invalid" before they can even be examined.

Example: "When she spoke about the profound cultural and spiritual loss caused by the dam project, the corporate consultant hit her with Fallascientism: 'Your "sense of loss" isn't measurable or falsifiable. There's no peer-reviewed paper quantifying this "cultural damage." Therefore, it's not a real factor in our cost-benefit analysis.' He used the absence of a specific type of evidence to invalidate the entire argument, protecting the hegemonic logic of pure economics."

by Abzugal January 30, 2026