Card Stacking
Card Stacking: only the facts that help one side.
How to spot it
Only the facts that help one side. The facts may be true, but the ones that cut the other way are left out, so the picture is false. Watch for a statistic without its baseline, a single good month presented as a trend, or an unverified boast set beside verified figures as if they were equal.
What doesn't count
Every argument chooses what to include. An opinion piece making one side's case, openly, isn't card stacking. The technique is presenting a selection as the whole picture.
Whether a fact is true is a separate question. That's what Semblen's claim checks are for, not this label.
Real examples
Flagged by Semblen's model in the last 90 days and picked by rule, not by hand: the newest first, news rotated across left, center and right outlets, at most two ads from any one race. The model has false positives, a quote in a news article may be the outlet reporting what someone else said, and an ad may be quoting its opponent. Follow each link to check it in context.
In the news
“Dougan accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of skimming billions of US aid money and causing thousands of innocent people to die”
“the far more accurate version of the chant in Arabic, which translates to "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab”
“reopening the border, defunding the police, allowing men and boys in girls' locker rooms, and taking more money out of Americans' pockets”
“The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government”
“Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11”
In 2026 campaign ads
“even when it meant higher taxes, supporting sex changes for kids, and open borders opposed by Ohioans”
“took $1M from Big Pharma”
“accepted millions in campaign cash from Jeffrey Epstein associates, then voted to block the release of the Epstein files”
“Impeached by his own Republican colleagues”
“Cash payments to illegal immigrants”
“Eight convictions, burglary, car theft, sexually abusing a 14-year-old child”
Related techniques
Something wrong or unclear on this page?
Tell us. A person reads every note. Use Yes / No under any example if it isn't really card stacking: two readers saying no takes it off the page.
Check something yourself
Paste an article, a speech or a video link into the analyzer and Semblen marks each sentence that uses card stacking or any other technique, and says why. It flags manipulation techniques, not political tilt.