Claim layers
Sourced states what a record directly supports. Inferred shows the reasoning across records. Argued names the editorial judgment. A conclusion cannot quietly borrow the authority of its source.
About
bent.WTF makes bent systems legible.
The publication opens bills, forms, offers, rules, and official numbers to show where cost, time, risk, and work moved outside the first visible measure.
Mission
bent.WTF helps readers see money, cost, time, incentives, institutions, ownership, access, privacy, debt, housing, healthcare, education, subscriptions, measurement, and sludge more clearly.
Public posture
The work is broad-audience, evidence-first, and conclusion-light. It does not publish investment calls, ideological slogans, or forced remedies.
Promise to process
Did the institution deliver what it promised?
Put the stated purpose next to the first delivery. Then record the burden moved to the user, the later repair, and what remains unresolved.
Standards
Evidence first. Stop where the record stops.
bent.WTF is built to make systems easier to inspect, not to hand readers a ready-made position.
Scope before certainty
Consequential claims identify the measure, population, jurisdiction, period, and caveat. If the source stops at a boundary, the claim stops there too.
Counterevidence
Every mature Case File must state the strongest honest countercase. An apparent bend may turn out to be a defensible tradeoff, a necessary method, or the wrong first interpretation.
Freshness and versions
Source-review and freshness dates remain attached to governed records. Revisions, superseded methods, and corrections should remain inspectable instead of being overwritten without explanation.
Corrections
Corrections identify what changed, why it changed, and where the supporting record now stands. A clean archive is useful only if its mistakes remain visible.
AI use and human authority
AI may assist research discovery, source organization, drafting, coding, formatting, testing, and accessibility preparation. It cannot fabricate evidence, reader testing, expert review, or approval. Final judgment and publication responsibility remain human.
Public trust record
What a consequential page should let you inspect.
The claim
What the page says, what kind of claim it is, and which source supports that exact statement.
The frame
Jurisdiction, population, data period, definition, exclusions, assumptions, and the point where the evidence runs out.
The challenge
Counterevidence, alternative explanations, and the conditions that would change the conclusion.
The record
Source-review date, freshness due date, calculation method, version history, corrections, human review, and material AI use.
Corrections and contact
Send source corrections and factual issues.
Correction requests should identify the page, claim, source, and proposed fix. Public corrections will name what changed, why it changed, and where the supporting record now stands.
Send factual corrections, source concerns, broken links, and publication questions to corrections@bent.wtf.
Continue through the record
Keep the source record beside the claim.
The Library keeps definitions, exhibits, caveats, and related work close enough to check.
Start with an active file. Open the exhibits when a claim does real work.
Open the Library