kafkatrap

A term coined by Eric S. Raymond, referring to the following false accusations and its variants:

The fact that you are denying that you are XYZ is exactly the proof of you being XYZ.

A list of variants exist. The following is my own understanding, so it might not be accurate (relative to the original essay):

• Model A: The fact that you are denying that you are XYZ is exactly the proof of you being XYZ.
• Model C: Even if you aren't XYZ, you've benefited from the outcome of others being XYZ, which still makes you XYZ.
• Model P: Even if you aren't XYZ, you're in a position where you would have benefit from others being XYZ, which still makes you XYZ.
• Model S: If you are skeptical that this particular event is the proof that there's a systematic problem of XYZ, you are XYZ.
• Model L: If you keep being skeptical and trying to analyze people's claim about XYZ, and that makes you XYZ.
• Model M: If you are against people's anti-XYZ theory, you either don't understand the theory at all, or you're XYZ.
• Model T: If any of the supposed-to-be victims of XYZ are against the anti-XYZ theory, they are not victims and their opinions can be dismissed; and they are also XYZ as well.

If we were to formalize this shitty logic a bit it would be something like XYZ(you) -> (AnyCondition(you) -> XYZ(you)) but the first XYZ(you) --> part is deliberately not mentioned, so the full description would be (XYZ(you) -> (AnyCondition(you) -> XYZ(you))) -> (AnyCondition(you) -> XYZ(you)).

see-also: original essay (archived)

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2024.8.1

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