Golden airplane phenomena

The act of using a topic or item to prove a point, but drastically altering or misrepresenting said thing to make it fit your argument.

The name of this phenomena comes from the first episode of ancient aliens where the wackjobs on the show claim a precolumbian gold artifact was an airplane. To prove this point they build a miniature model, but said model has propellers, wheels, and other modern flourishes not present on the original model. They also remove nearly all of the decorative elements in order to make the model more aerodynamic.

First cited by YouTuber MiniMinuiteMan in his video about the dendara lightbulb.