Supermyths, of
which braced myths are a sub-type - are ironic unintended, or else a deliberate
and disingenuous, consequences of fallacy dissemination. Supermyths have very
specific components:
1. The creation of a fallacy, myth or error by an orthodox
expert.
2. Being used by another expert who in turn promotes it as
being ‘true, and whilst still thinking that it is true either promotes it as a
good example of the need to be healthily skeptical of bad scholarship,
or else:
3. compounds the myth by using it as a premise upon which to build one or
more supporting myths.
Braced myths are
supermyths that have been pointedly deployed by orthodox scholars in order to
bust another specific myth or fallacy. The braced myth hypothesis is that using
one myth as a specific mythbusting device in this way braces the supermyth to
make it further entrenched and therefore more difficult to prevent it being
credulously disseminated as veracious knowledge.
A pre-supermyth - bracedmyth in the making: The 164ft Zombie Rat Myth
Latest supermyth: The Semmelweis Myth
