Sokalism

A cognitive bias, meta-bias, and logical fallacy named after the Sokal Affair, where one dismisses an entire field or area of knowledge as wrong based on the existence of hoaxes, bad scholarship, or fraudulent papers within that field. Sokalism is a form of academic Bulverism: instead of engaging with the actual arguments and evidence of a discipline, you point to a hoax or scandal and declare the entire field invalid. "Postmodernism is worthless because Sokal hoaxed them." "Gender studies is pseudoscience because of hoax papers." The fallacy ignores that every field contains bad work, that hoaxes reveal weaknesses in peer review but not the worthlessness of entire disciplines, and that dismissing a field based on isolated incidents is itself unscientific. Sokalism is the favorite fallacy of culture warriors who want to dismiss entire areas of inquiry without doing the work of understanding them.

Example: "He'd never read a word of postmodern philosophy, but he'd heard about the Sokal hoax. 'Postmodernism is all nonsense,' he declared, committing Sokalism. The existence of one hoax paper proved nothing about an entire tradition of thought. But he didn't need evidence; he had a story. Sokalism had done its work: dismissing a field without engaging it."

by Abzugal March 8, 2026

Bulverism-Sokalism

The unified cognitive bias and meta-bias that combines bulverism and sokalism into a single dismissive framework, particularly used against fields labeled as "postmodernism" or "relativism." Bulverism-Sokalism assumes that an entire field is wrong because it's "postmodern" or "relativist," and that anyone who draws on that field does so because of intellectual corruption rather than genuine insight. The bias allows its holders to dismiss vast areas of scholarship without engagement, to explain away opposing views without addressing them, and to maintain their own worldview as obviously correct while everyone else is simply deluded. Bulverism-Sokalism is the epistemology of the intellectual bubble, where everything outside is fraud and everyone inside is duped.

Example: "He dismissed all criticism as 'postmodern relativism.' When she pointed to specific arguments, he didn't engage—he just labeled them postmodern and moved on. Bulverism-Sokalism had made him immune to challenge: any opposing view was both explained away (you've been corrupted) and dismissed (your field is invalid). He never had to think, only to label."

by Abzugal March 8, 2026

sosalism

form of government created by chief keef to love no thotties.

“Aye Chris that’s against Sosalism policy, you can’t be with her”

by luv no thotties May 7, 2020

Soyalism

An authoritarian government that needs to control the political and economic spectrum of a society, along with the people's thoughts and words. The means of production, distribution, exchange, all being owned by the community as a whole. Along with the idea that thoughts and words of every citizen needs to be regulated through violent means, as long as it in a group, since they are usually limp-wristed weaklings.

Soy: WE NEED TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION AND MAKE HATE SPEECH LAWS.
Normal person: So you practice Soyalism.
Soy: NO, MY FRIENDS AND I JUST CANT DEAL WITH WORDS AND THOUGHTS THAT DISAGREE WITH MINE, AND AN ECONOMY THAT DOESN'T PAY ME 100K A YEAR FOR A FEMINIST DANCE THEORY DEGREE.
Normal person: You and your friends sound like a bunch of children.
Soy: YOU'RE LUCKY THIS AREN'T 4 OF MY FRIENDS HERE OR YOU'D GET BEAT DOWN.

by Hquasmstsw January 28, 2019