this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Fun fact: Norman Mailer coined the word factoid in 1973. He wrote:

"[Factoids are] facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority."

In other words, a factoid is a clickbait "alternative" fact.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Interesting. I always took the term to indicate a single fact in isolation, in contrast to major dates or things that could be considered part of a curriculum.