TruthLock

The core idea

Every statement stands on something. TruthLock asks you to say out loud what that is.

There are six labels. A statement gets exactly one label at a time. The label can change when the evidence changes, and when it does, the change is recorded rather than hidden.

The six labels

1. Documented fact

What it means: The statement can be checked by anyone in a primary or official source.

What it requires: - A source a reader can actually find: an official record, a government document, a published court document, a primary text, or a reputable reference work. - The source's title, who published it, and the date. A link when one exists. - The statement must say only what the source says. If the source says "this program existed," the fact is that the program existed, not what it was "really for."

How to write it:

Documented fact: The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar in the Catholic states of Europe beginning in 1582. (Source: title, publisher, date, link.)

2. Strong inference

What it means: A careful conclusion drawn from documented facts. It is not stated in any single source, but it follows closely from several.

What it requires: - The documented facts it rests on, each with its own source. - A short, honest statement of the reasoning step. - Awareness of the gap. An inference is never written as if it were a fact.

How to write it:

Strong inference: Because the same few index funds hold shares in most large public companies, they have voting influence across many industries at once. (Rests on: public shareholder filings. Reasoning: holding the whole market means holding a piece of nearly every company in it. Not shown: that this influence is used to coordinate those companies.)

3. Source's claim

What it means: Something a person, book, website, video, or document says, which has not yet been checked.

What it requires: - Name the source. "X says..." never "It is known that..." - Do not change the meaning while repeating it. - Do not treat several sources that copy each other as several confirmations.

How to write it:

Source's claim: A popular article states that the claim first appeared in 1904. The article does not name its source for this date.

A source's claim is not an insult. Most true things begin as someone's claim. The label only means "not yet checked."

4. Symbolic or spiritual reading

What it means: A meaning drawn from symbol, number, story, tradition, or faith.

What it requires: - Say plainly that it is a symbolic or spiritual reading. - Credit the tradition, text, or teacher it comes from. - Never present it as a measurement, a medical effect, or a historical record.

How to write it:

Symbolic reading: In Jewish and Christian tradition, many readers take the number seven as a sign of completion, drawing on the seventh day of rest in Genesis 2:2-3. This is a reading, not a measured property of the number.

Symbolic material is kept and respected. It is simply not promoted into evidence.

5. Unknown

What it means: There is not enough evidence either way.

What it requires: - Say it is unknown. - Do not fill the gap with a guess that reads like a finding. - Where possible, say what evidence would settle it.

How to write it:

Unknown: No surviving record shows who first said this. (Would settle it: an earlier dated source.)

An honest "unknown" is a finished answer. It is not a failure.

6. Contradicted

What it means: Better evidence shows the statement is wrong.

What it requires: - The contradicting source, with title, publisher, and date. - Why it outranks the original claim (for example: a primary record versus a later retelling, or a direct witness versus a rumor). - The original claim stays visible, marked as contradicted. It is not erased.

How to write it:

Contradicted: The claim that this structure can be seen from orbit with the naked eye is contradicted by the first-hand report of an astronaut who looked for it. (Source: title, publisher, date.)

Choosing between labels

When you are unsure, choose the weaker label. It is easy to raise a statement later when evidence arrives. It is hard to undo the damage of a guess that was published as a fact.

A few rules of thumb:

Conflicting sources

Sometimes good sources disagree. When they do:

The reopen rule

Every label is a standing, not a final verdict. Each one should note what would reopen it.

A label is reopened when:

A label is not reopened by:

Two more parts of the rule:

When a label changes, the old label stays visible with a note on what changed and when. Nothing is quietly rewritten.

The three columns

On Severything pages you may also see the same idea in a shorter form:

Source's claims, unknowns, and contradicted statements are marked wherever they appear. Anything that cannot be sourced is kept off our evidence pages.

Sources