All of these types of people engage in a variety of dishonest behaviors. They cherry pick data, quote out of context, use anecdote instead of evidence and so on. Some of them outright lie.
I have been tweeting this frustration and have been looking for the word that best describes this behavior. I had been using disingenuous, but it turns out this doesn’t quite fit. Specious was suggested, but again it isn’t the right fit. Lie was another suggestion, but I would like a word with more subtlety.
Over the weekend, I tweeted that I wanted a word that means “to intentionally misrepresent another person's opinion/statements to support the opposite point of view”
Tanya Ha of Catalyst fame, tweeted “Moncktonation” as a suggestion.
"Moncktonation" to intentionally misrepresent another person's opinion/statements to support the opposite point of view
Mr Monckton is a well known climate change denier, who is guilty of all the tricks to try and deceive his audience into believing his point of view. He cherry picks, mis-quotes and all the rest.
So I propose that skeptics may now use the word Monktonation in reference to anyone who goes out of their way to misrepresent any information or other persons views.
Love it.
ReplyDeleteThe self-interested moncktoner is so excited by his pied-piping that he can't help but crank the volume, further attracting moncktonee mice.