Powerful new piece from @danengber about #supermyths, the false stories used to bust myths @FiveThirtyEight #someta https://t.co/rHCWXzgWG9
— Jessica McDonald (@jjmcdona) April 29, 2016
Supermyths are myths about myths that are created and compounded by experts, spread by pseudo-skeptics and destroyed by evidence. Braced myths are a sub-type of supermyth, created by orthodox expert authorities that are so powerful they are believed to be true by respected scholars who unwittingly promote them as examples of the need to be healthily sceptical of counterknowledge and then, with unintended irony, use them as argument winners to refute other fallacious knowledge.