TruthLock

Before you start

You do not need special training or paid databases. You need a little patience and a willingness to accept "unknown" as an answer.

Work on one claim at a time. If a post makes ten claims, pick the one that everything else depends on and check that first.

The six steps

Step 1. Find the original source

Ask: where did this first come from?

Step 2. Check who published it and when

Ask: who is speaking, and from what position?

Step 3. Separate fact from framing

Ask: what does the source actually say, and what has been added?

Step 4. Look for contradiction

Ask: is there good evidence that says otherwise?

Step 5. Decide its standing

Ask: which label does this earn today?

Use one of the six labels from The Standard: Documented fact, Strong inference, Source's claim, Symbolic or spiritual reading, Unknown, or Contradicted.

Step 6. Note what would reopen it

Ask: what new evidence would change this label?

Worked example 1: "The Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye"

Step 1. Original source. The claim is very old and widely repeated. One popular article says it dates back to 1904, but that article does not name its source for the date. We could not find the true first appearance.

Step 2. Who and when. Most versions online are retellings with no source at all. The strongest kind of witness would be someone who actually went to orbit and looked.

Step 3. Fact versus framing. The checkable part is narrow: can a person in orbit see the wall without a camera or lens? The phrase "visible from space" is loose. "Space" could mean low orbit or the Moon. "Visible" could mean with the naked eye or in a zoomed photograph. We tie the claim to its most common meaning: the naked eye, from orbit.

Step 4. Contradiction. In October 2003, China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, said in a television interview after his flight that he did not see the Great Wall. Reports also describe astronauts photographing parts of the wall from orbit using long camera lenses, under good light and snow conditions. That supports a narrower statement: the wall can sometimes be photographed with a zoom lens, which is not the same as being seen with the eye.

Step 5. Standing. - "The Great Wall is visible from orbit with the naked eye": Contradicted, by a first-hand report from an astronaut who looked for it. - "Parts of the wall have been photographed from orbit with long lenses": Source's claim, reported by secondary sources. We did not trace the original photographs. - "The claim dates back to 1904": Source's claim, unsourced.

Step 6. Reopen if... A credible first-hand account or official record shows an astronaut seeing the wall with the unaided eye from orbit, under stated conditions.

Worked example 2: "Vikings wore horned helmets"

Step 1. Original source. The image is everywhere in films, cartoons, and sports logos. None of these is a source. The useful sources are museum collections and archaeology.

Step 2. Who and when. The National Museum of Denmark publishes material on Viking Age helmets. Smithsonian Magazine reported in January 2022 on new research into horned helmets found in Denmark.

Step 3. Fact versus framing. The checkable part: do surviving Viking Age helmets, or writings from the Viking Age, show horned helmets worn in battle? The framing part is "Vikings," as if every Viking dressed the same way.

Step 4. Contradiction. - The National Museum of Denmark states that only one preserved helmet from the Viking Age is known, and it has no horns. It also states that no contemporary written sources mention Vikings wearing horned headgear. - The same museum notes that some evidence suggests certain warriors may have worn horned headgear, possibly for ritual or display. - Smithsonian Magazine (Livia Gershon, January 10, 2022) reports that the horned helmets found at Viksø, Denmark, in 1942 were dated to about 900 BCE, nearly 2,000 years before the Viking Age, in research led by Helle Vandkilde of Aarhus University. The researchers think they were worn for symbolic or religious reasons, not battle. - Several popular sources say the horned image spread after costume designer Carl Emil Doepler put horned helmets in costumes for Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in 1876.

Step 5. Standing. - "Vikings commonly wore horned helmets in battle": Contradicted, by the surviving Viking Age helmet and the absence of horns in contemporary written sources. - "Some Viking Age people may have used horned headgear for ritual or display": Unknown, leaning possible. There is some evidence, but not enough to settle it. - "The famous horned helmets from Denmark are about 2,900 years old": Documented fact as reported from published radiocarbon research. For full Column A standing, cite the original journal article directly. - "The modern image comes from the 1876 Wagner costumes": Source's claim, widely repeated. We did not check the original 1876 costume designs.

Step 6. Reopen if... A Viking Age helmet with horns is found in a battle context, or a Viking Age written source describes warriors wearing them.

What these examples show

Neither answer is a simple "true" or "false." Each popular claim broke into several smaller statements, and each one earned its own label. That is the point of the method. It does not flatten a question into a slogan. It shows you which parts are solid, which are open, and which do not hold up.

Credit where it is due

This method overlaps with well-tested approaches to source checking, and we want to credit them:

The ten receipts to ask for

For any claim that matters, ask for each of these. A link to a long document is not a receipt for every sentence in it. A source shows only what its own text, measurements, or certified records show.

  1. The exact claim, and what would confirm it or rule it out.
  2. The original source: archive identifier, page or section, publisher, date, and link.
  3. Authenticity: is it the original or a certified copy, and who has held it?
  4. Identity: a named person, legal entity, or agency. Never a guess from religion, surname, ethnicity, symbol, or association.
  5. Operation: what actually happened, and how.
  6. Relationship: a documented direct connection, not closeness or resemblance.
  7. Authority: what power was claimed, what was legally transferred, and what was actually used.
  8. Measurements and independent confirmation, whenever a physical effect is claimed.
  9. Competing explanations, and the evidence against the claim.
  10. Outcome and status: what followed, what has been corrected, and what new evidence would reopen it.

Shortcuts that fail in both directions

Compare what happens, not the names

When two traditions describe something that looks alike, compare the steps, not the labels. Ask what the sequence is, what changes, what causes the change, and what is kept. Then put each tradition's own names back. Similarity does not erase difference.

Sources