This pages features some of the most striking examples of Neo-obscurantist propaganda and/or censorship taken from mainstream media outlets, institutions and characters, and throughly dissected in order to show the manipulatory tactics listed in the apposite section.
"The war on science" (cover from "National Geographic")
1) Throw completely unrelated criticisms about completely unrelated subjects in the same bulk, in order to psychologically train your audience to put serious scientific objections on the same level as illiterate personal incredulity.
2) Accuse your enemies of exactly what you're doing; attack doubts and criticism (both fundamental requirements of science), then go on accusing dissenters of conducting the "war on science" you actually started.
3) Invert the meaning of "science"; treat science as a mere collection of dogmas (in other words, a religion) by treating a lack of faith in those dogmas as an opposition to "science" itself.
4) Slander your opposition by maliciously insinuating without any evidence (aside from the aforementioned fallacies) that any disagreement (justified or not) with your conclusions necessarily derives from a supposed aversion to science itself.
5) Indirectly imply (based on the aforementioned fallacies) that all your conclusions are definitely and irrefutably right.
"False claim COVID-19 vaccines caused 1.1 million deaths" (article by Nate Trela from "USA Today")
1) Present a deduction/theory as a "claim".
2) Accuse skeptics of "twisting data"; provide zero evidence for this claim; never mention examples of data-twisting on believers part.
3) Imply that, since the primary source does not mention any cause, nobody else can and no interpretation can be made.
4) Keep repeating the claim that COVID-19 is the main responsible of the aforementioned deaths as if this was conclusively proven beyond a shadow of doubt; never provide any evidence for this claim; ignore evidence of the contrary.
5) Dismiss presented evidence on the basis of the lack of explicit confirmation by official sources; do not ask whether research in this direction has even been attempted in the first place; ignore the massive damage this kind of science denial might cause.
6) Employ double standards; frantically search for alternative (not involving vaccines) explainations, never submit them to the same standards of evidence used to dismiss the vaccine one; ignore Ockham's razor.
7) Repeat the claim that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives; use 1 single study from a politically engaged organization as your sole proof.
8) Deny causation just because not explicitly confirmed by mere correlation; ignore studies showing causal link; use this as an excuse to dismiss the correlation itself, denying the scientific method at its root; ignore the massive damage this kind of science denial might cause.
9) Cite a different data set using a much less reliable measure (cause of death) as if it somehow disproved the previous one instead of the other way around.
10) Criticize presented data for lacking marginally relevant informations such as "health of recipients" or "size of the subgroups".
11) Keep accusing the source of spreading "false claims"; provide zero evidence for this claim; never mention examples of false claims made by vaccine pushers.
12) Use the lack of conclusive evidence as conclusive evidence of the opposite.
"Social media and shared reality" (article by Jennifer Golbeck from "Science")
1) Imply your opinion piece has anything to do with science by having it published in a journal called "Science".
2) Attempt to present an insignificant fringe like Flat Earthers as a widespread phenomenon; provide no data in support of this narrative.
3) Repeatedly and arbitrarily cram Flat Earth (or similarly ideas) together with other completely unrelated conspiracy theories in order to smear the latter together with the former.
4) Shame potential future dissenters from ever following a conspiracy theory by roughly dismissing all of them as guillable morons.
5) Accuse dissenters of the same exact tactics you're using; feign concern about people's irrationality while simultaneosly exploiting it and amplifying it by means of psychological trickery.
6) Vilify the idea of doing personal research (a prime requisite of the scientific method); use unverifiable quotes about cherry-picked cases of failure as a justification for your anti-science stance.
7) Dismiss opponents' points by latching on their source rather than their merit or substance.
8) Present your opponents' refusal to abandon their position as a form extremism, indirectly implying that your argument are a-priori the correct ones, without ever presenting them.
9) Lazily dismiss contrary evidence with a wave of hand as "superficially compelling counterargument", without ever presenting examples nor rebuttals to them.
10) Feign an "empathetic" and "respectful" attitude while simultaneosly defaming your opponents and depicting them as a public threat.
11) Keep mentioning some alleged past or potential "damage" done by conspiracy theorists; provide zero examples or evidence for this claim; never mention the damage done by conspiracy deniers.
12) Welcome obscurantist measures like silencing of dissent as the solution to the alleged "problem"; avoid mentioning the intrinsic dangers of such measures.
P.S.: Notice how the article openly admits the guilt-by-association tactics of the reviewed book: "the book connects the Flat Earth movement with other conspiracy theories"; this tells how this kind of propaganda feeds on the most uneducated, easy manipulable minds, exactly like ordinary magicians and charlatans do.
P.S.: The institution where this article was crafted has a very revelatory name: "Social Intelligence Lab".
"The Pyramid of White Supremacy" (infograph by "The Equality Institute")
1) Pretend that your infograph somehow helps promoting equality by putting the logo of the so-called "Equality Institute" on it.
2) Indirectly promote racism by subtly implying the only white people can be racist or supremacist.
3) Vilify moderate egalitarian positions by implying that each step in the pyramid is necessarily leading to the next one.
4) Vilify moderation and rationality by re-wording them with displeasing names such as "indifference" or "minimization".
5) Promote a fanatic cult-like religious mentality by vilifying any form of doubt and critical thinking, and any attempt at formulating a not-simplistic narrative.
6) Promote full-on racism by implying that *all* white people are inherently bad, and treat POC as if they were inherently incapable of lying.
7) Never bother contextualizing the target quotes; treat them all as inherently harmful regardless of situations, intent, people involved, etc..
8) Avoid mentioning the opposite danger your anti-white propaganda poses; never mention cases of anti-white racism or hatred.
P.S.: Notice how this anti-white racist propaganda piece is endorsed by the Salisbury University; this means that part of mainstream academia fully endorses the promotion of anti-white racism and prejudice.
part of a bill gone into effect in California
Aside from the several usual baseless claims and slandering, the revealing part is in the point "e": "Major news outlets have reported that some of the most dangerous propagators of inaccurate information regarding the COVID-19 vaccines are licensed health care professionals". Contrary to the usual mantra of "trust the experts", "news outlets" are here being treated as an authority even higher than "licensed health care professionals"; in other words this document is openly admitting how mainstream media usurped science and are speaking in its name, while the words of actual experts is, in fact, being actively quashed. This is called "2nd-degree State Pseudoscience".
Same copy-pasted story getting repeatedly re-posted.
Photo of an event being re-used and disguised as something completely different.