Brandolini’s Law: What It Is And How It Influences The Spread Of Ideas
A man dressed in a yogi’s clothing and sitting on the floor is asked what his secret is to being so happy, to which he answers: “Don’t argue with idiots.”
Surprised, the person who had asked him the question cannot resist saying a resounding “Well, I don’t agree.” The other man, with a Gandhian aura, answers: “You are right.”
This curious anecdote helps us introduce a maxim that we should introduce into our daily lives: Brandolini’s law If you want to discover more about this interesting postulate, we invite you to continue reading and be surprised.
Brandolini’s law is also called the bullshit asymmetry principle, the bullshit asymmetry principle, or even the bullshit asymmetry principle, with forgiveness (in English it has been popularized as the “bullshit asymmetry principle”).
This is a maxim that circulates on the Internet that emphasizes how difficult it is to try to dismantle a false belief or information of dubious quality, proclaiming that the amount of energy needed to refute nonsense is much greater than that needed to produce it
This curious law was formulated and popularized in January 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian programmer who posted the following comment on his Twitter account:
“The bullshit asymmetry (sic): the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.”
“The asymmetry of bullshit: the total energy required to refute nonsense is of a magnitude greater than to produce it.”
This comment, with spelling error included, reached viral proportions in a matter of hours According to Brandolini himself, he was inspired to utter such a maxim after reading Daniel Kahneman’s book “Think Fast, Think Slow” (2011) just before witnessing a political debate between journalist Marco Travaglio and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. attacking each other.
This principle is closely linked to the debate on fake news and cognitive bias In his book “La Démocratie des crédules” (The Democracy of the Credulous), the French sociologist Gérard Bronner stated that to disprove a falsehood it was necessary to present very solid arguments, while nonsense often makes use of cognitive prejudices, making seem more plausible than scientific explanations, which are usually much more complicated.
Laurent Vercueil, neurologist and researcher at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (France), considers that Brandolini’s law has the following aspects.
1. Impact asymmetry
Spreading nonsense makes it have more impact than any subsequent attempt to disable them.
2. Memory retention asymmetry
The mark that the speech leaves on the memory is much deeper than any information that later contradicts it, no matter how true it may be.
3. Asymmetry of the anointing
Whoever spreads the speech is anointed with an advantageous aura, while Anyone who tries to be right is seen as a spoilsport that he does not understand anything or that he has allowed himself to be convinced by the official discourse.
Principle of the asymmetry of stupidity and mental health
In a world where new technologies have such a great impact, It is highly advisable to resist arguing with people who, under anonymity, spout nonsense of all kinds, each one greater than the previous one. Arguing with someone who will never admit that we are right does us absolutely no good beyond feeling a lot of overwhelm, frustration and anxiety.
We can also apply this to people we do know, family and friends who, sometimes, are a little hard to understand. Almost no one changes their mind when it is argued, whether they are right or not. There are few occasions in which people, after having had an intense and heated debate, become enlightened and willingly accept to question our beliefs in the face of new evidence.
Most of us mortals are blinded by confirmation bias, looking for and highlighting what “confirms” our already well-established beliefs and discarding what we see that contradicts them. Therefore, trying to convince someone can be very costly in terms of time and effort, something that can exhaust us physically and mentally and harm our mental health.
The conclusion of all this is that, looking after our mental health, we must take our reason, keep it to ourselves and Don’t waste time on a discussion that leads to nothing Giving arguments to someone who doesn’t want to hear them is like giving honey to a donkey.
Godwin’s law
Saying nonsense, nonsense and imbecilities is very easy Let’s be honest, we all have experience in this, even those of us who lead the life of intellectuals and experts. It is inevitable that from time to time we speak out loud and above our means, saying things that simply are not true, either because we have exaggerated them or because we really believe them.
Controlling yourself and avoiding breaking in is complicated. We see someone utter a ridiculous nonsense and we want to prove that they are wrong, and more importantly, that we are right. If we are unlucky enough to fall into one of these debates because we have not been able to resist the temptation to argue, there is an unmistakable sign of when is the best time to end it: when Adolf Hitler is mentioned.
This phenomenon is called Godwin’s law, even though it is more of a statement. Basically this law states that Sooner or later in every discussion the worst, worst person in recent times will be mentioned Although this law is usually related to Internet discussions, it is perfectly applicable to real life. The longer a discussion is, the more likely it is that someone will mention this man with the ridiculous mustache and, as you know, absurd discussions tend to stretch like chewing gum.
But The best way to prevent absurd discussions from arising in our immediate environment is simply not to reinforce them If a family member (e.g., typical brother-in-law) or a friend (e.g., our colleague the incel) is prone to spouting nonsense, the best thing we can do is apply the wise and serendipitous postulate of Mr. Alberto Brandolini, discuss with him and avoid giving him what he has been looking for: little house. The more ignored he feels by spouting tremendous nonsense, the less likely he will be to continue spouting it in the future.
