Malcolm Reavell introduced me to the idea of Brandolini's Law on a post on the Facebook page of Modern Money Scotland.
Wikipedia summarises the law as follows:
Brandolini's law, also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the difficulty of debunking false, facetious, or otherwise misleading information: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than is needed to produce it."
Trolls are, of course, aware of this. That is why pile-ons of trolls happen – no doubt coordinated by some website or other. Their simple aim is to waste time.
This is why I always reserve the right to delete them.
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Seems similar to “a lie is halfway round the world while the truth is getting its boots on”
Or indeed: “Never wrestle with pigs: you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
Quite so
Exasperated MD when faced with planning realities: “Don’t confuse me with facts”
When I was a trade union rep many years ago I had to deal with a college principal who would come up with proposals he would say were “plain common sense” and when I questioned them he would complain that I was trying to “blind him with science.”
Ah, “plain common sense” – assertions of the principal’s own preconceived views, unsupported by any articulated principles or proper evidence. Such as, the earth is flat, the sun goes around the earth, feathers fall slower then cannonballs because they weigh less, etc. Common sense, isn’t it.
“Blind with science” – don’t distract me with your inconvenient truths.
Brandolini’s law is correct except that the word ‘energy’ should be replaced with ‘money’ because that is what is driving the bullshit sector of the political economy these days.
If we take the potential for establishment corruption (c) as a constant, and assume that corruption spreads in an area (the square) around an establishment figure directly proportionate to the amount of money (m) applied; we can posit that the energy (E) supplied to the bullshit sector would follow the form: E = mc^2… Hehe.