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coti

(4,612 posts)
Tue May 19, 2020, 09:02 PM May 2020

Let's talk about "refute" vs. "deny"

I'm starting to see "refute" being used incorrectly even in headlines around the Internet, so let's be clear on what it means to "refute" something:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/refute

verb:
1) to prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge.
1) to prove (a person) to be in error.


Simply denying someone else's allegations or premises "refutes" nothing, unless the person doing the denying is physically incapable of lying or being mistaken.

To truly "refute" an alleged fact, one must show CONCLUSIVE, objective proof of the alleged fact's falsehood.

Otherwise, if the person is just stating a belief in opposition to the allegation- as we see so often against genuine facts these days- they are merely denying, or rejecting, or disagreeing with, the proposition.

Thank you.

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Let's talk about "refute" vs. "deny" (Original Post) coti May 2020 OP
'Across the world' too. elleng May 2020 #1
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