What TellDear Is — and Where It's Going
Every day we encounter arguments designed to mislead, headlines engineered to provoke, and rhetoric crafted to bypass our critical faculties. Most of us sense something is off — but struggle to name exactly what. TellDear exists to fix that.
The idea
At the core of TellDear is a taxonomy: a structured catalog of the patterns that distort thinking and communication. Not a vague list of "things to watch out for," but a precise, interconnected reference — 535 aspects across six dimensions:
- Logical Fallacies — invalid argument structures that look like valid ones
- Manipulation & Propaganda — techniques that bypass reasoning to produce belief
- Cognitive Biases — systematic errors in how we perceive and process information
- Statistical & Methodological Errors — how numbers lie, even when they're true
- Argumentation Schemes — the structural patterns behind strong and weak arguments
- Discourse Mechanics — how framing, tone, and conversational moves shape conclusions
Each aspect has a name, a precise description, related aspects, and verification steps — concrete questions you can ask to detect it in the wild.
The tools
Knowing the taxonomy is one thing. Applying it is another. TellDear includes ten AI-powered apps that put the taxonomy to work:
- Text Analyzer — deep-scans any text and maps it against the full 535-aspect taxonomy
- Proposition Lab — interactive multi-phase argument analysis
- YouTube Analyzer — transcribes and analyzes video content
- Headline Decoder — detects manipulation techniques in news headlines
- Spin Doctor — inline annotation of political speech
- Fallacy Trainer — adaptive quiz for building pattern recognition
- Bias Mirror — surfaces your own cognitive blind spots
- Steel Man — builds the strongest version of any argument
- Ask Your Uncle — counters populist slogans and rhetoric
- Comeback — generates Socratic counter-questions to manipulative statements
What makes this different
There are many lists of logical fallacies on the internet. What makes TellDear different is the combination of breadth, structure, and AI application. The taxonomy is not a flat list — it's a network. Aspects relate to each other, contrast with each other, and can appear simultaneously in the same text. The AI apps don't just label things; they explain the structure of the reasoning error and how it operates in context.
The goal, stated plainly: to be the world's most comprehensive, most precise, and most usable structured reference for detecting epistemic failure in communication.
Where it's going
We're at the beginning. The taxonomy will grow — both in coverage and in depth. The apps will become faster, more accurate, and more context-aware. This article collection will document what we learn along the way.
If you work in journalism, education, research, law, or simply care about the quality of public discourse — TellDear is being built for you.