Red flags at dawn
Internet bullshit detection flags
Just seen a great YouTube video, or something on Facebook, that gets your blood pumping? Chances are good you’ve just fallen unwittingly into a trap. Here’s how to recognise some popular traps.
These are not about proving truth. They are about detecting psychological manipulation.
Emotional hijack flag
If the content spikes fear, outrage, superiority or urgency in the first 15 seconds, you are being manipulated before you are being informed.
Certainty theatre flag
Absolute language. Always. Never. Everyone knows. The truth they don’t want you to see. Reality is probabilistic. Certainty is a performance.
Enemy simplification flag
If a complex system is reduced to one villain, you are in propaganda, not analysis.
Narrative over data flag
If a story is doing most of the persuasive work and the data is vague, selectively quoted or absent, the cart is pulling the horse.
Credential theatre flag
Genuine experts explain uncertainty. Performers display authority. Watch which one you’re being offered.
Monetisation pressure flag
If belief must be adopted quickly in order to buy something, subscribe, join, or prepare for an imminent threat, pause immediately.
Algorithm reward flag
If the content style perfectly fits outrage-optimised platforms, its survival depends on engagement, not truth.
Identity fusion flag
If accepting the idea quietly demands that you now belong to a “we” who are awake, brave, enlightened or persecuted, you are being recruited, not educated.