Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a worldwide conspiracy. The word was coined as a nonsensical term with religious undertones in the Discordian religious text Principia Discordia (1965) by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill, but was popularized by The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) of satirical conspiracy fiction novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
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In these novels, the interjection "fnord" is given hypnotic power over the unenlightened. Under the Illuminati program, children in grade school are taught to be unable to consciously see the word "fnord". For the rest of their lives, every appearance of the word subconsciously generates a feeling of uneasiness and confusion, and prevents rational consideration of the subject. This results in a perpetual low-grade state of fear in the populace. This in turn perpetuates the need for Government, because without fear, people don't need Government.
In the Shea/Wilson construct, fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newspapers and magazines, causing fear and anxiety in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the advertisements, encouraging a consumerist society. It is implied in the books that fnord is not the actual word used for this task, but merely a substitute, since most readers would be unable to see the actual word.
To see the fnords means to be unaffected by the supposed hypnotic power of the word or, more loosely, of other fighting words. A more common expression of the concept would be "to read between the lines." The phrase "I have seen the fnords" was famously graffitied on a railway bridge (known locally as Anarchy Bridge) between Earlsdon and Coventry (U.K.) city centre throughout the 1980s and 1990s, until the bridge was upgraded. The bridge and the phrase were mentioned in the novel A Touch of Love by Jonathan Coe. Fnord was also graffitied all over the state of Maine and New England.[1]
"Fnord" is a popular word with followers of Discordianism. Its use in the Principia Discordia predated the Illuminatus! trilogy by several years, although the relationship between these two books is still unclear. It is often used in Usenet and other computer circles to indicate a random or surreal sentence; coercive subtext, or anything jarringly out of context (intentionally or not), can be labelled "fnord".
The term is also commonly used by hackers and programmers as a metasyntactic variable. It appears in the SubGenius Recruitment film Arise! and has been in use in the SubGenius newsgroup alt.slack.
A well-known fnord also occurs within the text of part of the High Energy Weapons Archive website.[2]
"Fnord" can also represent particular uses of the linguistic copula (the is of identity and the is of predication) condemned by mathematician-philosopher Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), formalized by D. David Bourland Jr. (1928–2000) in the language E-prime.[3]
In the online parody role playing game Kingdom of Loathing, when one acquires 23 of one item at a time, the word FNORD appears in white text after the game message. As the browser background is also white, it is invisible unless highlighted, adding to the joke of the "conspiracy".
GURPS material also uses the term, usually coupled with "You're not cleared for that!" E.g., http://www.sjgames.com/secret.html on their website.
In the Steve Jackson game Illuminati, a card for the Fnord Motor company (a reference to Ford Motors) is included. Also, in the game's first expansion set, a chip with the word "Fnord" written on it was included with instructions to "Hide this chip someplace your friends will never find it".
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A Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or useless information with the intent to misdirect or confuse, with the implication of a conspiracy.
The word was coined as a nonsensical term with religious undertones in the Discordian religious text Principia Discordia (1965) by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill, but was popularized by The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) of satirical conspiracy fiction novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
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   | Steve Jackson Games: Fnorder - Steve Jackson Games: Legacy Fnorders |
| | An excerpt from ''The Golden Apple'', dealing with fnords - Verwirrung - Zweitracht - Unordnung - Beamtenherrschaft - Grummet |
| | Fnord-l Archives - LISTSERV 15.5 - Archives - Error |
| | India's Nuclear Weapons Program: Smiling Buddha: 1974 - India's Nuclear Weapons Program - Smiling Buddha: 1974 |
| | A Fnord definition wiki list - index.php/Fnord - S23Wiki |
| | A random fnord displayer mediawiki extension - index.php/Template talk:Fnord - S23Wiki |
| | An edited, historic archive of FNORD-L and DONKEY-L Usenet posts - Stony Brook Literary Archive |
| | fnord - alt.slack | Google Groups |
| | A Fnord definition wiki list - /wiki.pl - S23Wiki |
| | Five Non-Definitions of Fnord - Reverend Loveshade's Five Non-Definitions of Fnord |
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