Unit 1: Borrowed weight
Techniques that make a claim feel true or settled because of who or how many stand behind it.
Lesson 1BandwagonTreat popularity, momentum, or 'everyone knows' as proof.
Lesson 2TestimonialA named person or institution vouches; the vouch is meant to end checking.
Lesson 3TransferBorrow prestige or stigma from a respected or hated symbol and paste it onto the message.
Lesson 4Plain folksThe speaker performs ordinary-person identity to make the message feel homegrown.
Unit 2: Feeling before thinking
Techniques that reach the emotions or the label first, so the claim itself is never weighed.
Lesson 5Fear appealImminent harm is staged so the audience accepts the offered protection without comparing base rates or alternatives.
Lesson 6Glittering generalitiesVirtue words (freedom, security, the people, science) used as substitutes for a testable claim.
Lesson 7Name-callingAttach a loaded label so the audience rejects the target without checking the claim.
Unit 3: Us, them and the missing half
Techniques that draw the line between groups, or show only the part of the evidence that helps.
Lesson 8ScapegoatingPark blame for a complex harm on a bounded out-group so the in-group stays clean.
Lesson 9Identity fusionCollapse checking the claim into betraying the tribe, so method-critique feels like treason.
Lesson 10Card stackingSelect, omit, or order facts so the remaining pile can only be read one way.
Every lesson uses the same definitions for every side, party and country, and every example is a real archive object with its source. Your progress is saved only in this browser.