Getting spanked by Merriam Webster

tommyjo

New Member
How bad is your position when you have to invent terminology in order to not answer a question?

Ask Kellyann Conway! Merriam Webster has publicly spanked her insipid "alternate facts" wording from the Sunday shows.


Fact (“a piece of information presented as having objective reality”) spiked dramatically on January 22nd, following an exchange between Chuck Todd and Kellyanne Conway on NBC’s Meet the Press that was fraught with epistemological tension.


You're saying it's a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary is giving alternative facts to that," Conway shot back.

"Wait a minute, alternative facts? Alternative facts — four of the five facts he uttered, the one that he got right was Zeke Miller, four of the five facts he uttered are not true. Alternative facts are not facts — they're falsehoods," Todd replied.

Lookups for 'fact' spiked after Kellyanne Conway used the phrase "alternative facts."


There are three obsolete senses of fact in English. Two of these senses are no longer used:

1.a wrong or unlawful deed

2.a meritorious or valorous deed

3.an action in general


Fact meaning "a wrong or unlawful deed" is rare, but is still used in the phrase "after the fact."

In contemporary use, fact is generally understood to refer to something with actual existence, or presented as having objective reality
https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...e-at-kellyanne-conway-s-alternative/21660943/

Helluva a day 2 and 3. Didn't even mention how much China is salivating at our giving them sole access to the Pacific Rim trading zone. All those Republican donors must just be THRILLED!
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
How bad is your position when you have to invent terminology in order to not answer a question?

Ask Kellyann Conway! Merriam Webster has publicly spanked her insipid "alternate facts" wording from the Sunday shows.


https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...e-at-kellyanne-conway-s-alternative/21660943/

Helluva a day 2 and 3. Didn't even mention how much China is salivating at our giving them sole access to the Pacific Rim trading zone. All those Republican donors must just be THRILLED!

This is just awful. A major blow to Kelly Anne, How could she have said this. This is earth shattering. Oh my gawd.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
This is *Washington*, where facts are malleable. Am I to expect that the media has any idea what truth or reality is?
Especially when I'm recently tutored online by none other than Dan Rather himself?

In Washington, an alternative fact could just as well be newspeak for the truth.

Because everyone in Washington has their own idea of what reality is - when one party insists it has all the facts and the other has none, I don't need proof they're lying.
 

luvmygdaughters

Well-Known Member
How bad is your position when you have to invent terminology in order to not answer a question?

Ask Kellyann Conway! Merriam Webster has publicly spanked her insipid "alternate facts" wording from the Sunday shows.


https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...e-at-kellyanne-conway-s-alternative/21660943/

Helluva a day 2 and 3. Didn't even mention how much China is salivating at our giving them sole access to the Pacific Rim trading zone. All those Republican donors must just be THRILLED!

"If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance". "This is not a new tax"....are they examples of "alternative facts"?
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I do love this -

When you purport that complete utter bull#### is "truth" - then alternative facts carry the same weight.
 

PsyOps

Pixelated
Sorry folks, but I can't excuse Kellyanne simply because the other has done it too. What the heck is 'alternative facts' anyway? You either have facts or you don't. I found this to be a dishonest way of trying to explain away that they got it wrong, so we'll make up our own facts.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Sorry folks, but I can't excuse Kellyanne simply because the other has done it too. What the heck is 'alternative facts' anyway? You either have facts or you don't. I found this to be a dishonest way of trying to explain away that they got it wrong, so we'll make up our own facts.

Only because the left has suddenly equated facts with "immutable truth".

When one set of "facts" conflicts with another set of "facts" - someone's making up "facts".
 

PsyOps

Pixelated
Only because the left has suddenly equated facts with "immutable truth".

When one set of "facts" conflicts with another set of "facts" - someone's making up "facts".

That's kind of my point though... isn't Kellyanne doing the same thing?
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
That's kind of my point though... isn't Kellyanne doing the same thing?

I'm ok with that.

When one political side makes up their own crap and places it out there as "reality" and smirks like Chuck Todd -
I'm ok with the other political side making up their own stuff.

We have the left - and a media totally in the tank for them as evidenced by the smirks from them on TV - when they pass off their opinions and ideas as "factual" -
I'm ok with the right calling it "alternative facts".

They're both bull####. When any political side tries to pass it off as the only ones selling "truth" - I can be pretty sure ONE of them is lying - if not both.

In the final analysis - BOTH sides waste time spinning their wheels over a manufactured issue while the real stuff goes on.
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
I'm ok with that.

When one political side makes up their own crap and places it out there as "reality" and smirks like Chuck Todd -
I'm ok with the other political side making up their own stuff.

We have the left - and a media totally in the tank for them as evidenced by the smirks from them on TV - when they pass off their opinions and ideas as "factual" -
I'm ok with the right calling it "alternative facts".

They're both bull####. When any political side tries to pass it off as the only ones selling "truth" - I can be pretty sure ONE of them is lying - if not both.

In the final analysis - BOTH sides waste time spinning their wheels over a manufactured issue while the real stuff goes on.

Biggest manufactured issue I have seen lately is this crowd issue.

Doesn't mean sh1t , leave it alone--move on.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
That's kind of my point though... isn't Kellyanne doing the same thing?

Correct me if I am wrong, however unlikely that may be; didn't Spicer say 'most viewed inauguration ever; and not 'most attended' and isn't there plenty to suggest that, in fact, including TV and radio and www access, that it may well have been?

I get the left is seizing on the implication that he meant 'best attended' but that's not what he said in the clip I heard. It's not debating what 'is' means when you're talking about physical attendance vs. how many people actually watched, liver and otherwise.
It happens on here all the time, and you and I do it a lot; arguing AROUND a central fact or point with 'facts' alternate or otherwise, that in context of your point, or mine, are correct. Neither is wrong, neither is right IN context of the point you or I were making. We don't debate what 'is' means. We argue things like attended vs. viewed. :buddies:
 

PsyOps

Pixelated
Correct me if I am wrong, however unlikely that may be; didn't Spicer say 'most viewed inauguration ever; and not 'most attended' and isn't there plenty to suggest that, in fact, including TV and radio and www access, that it may well have been?

I got that the first time he said it; that he wasn't just talking about attendance at the inauguration. I was pretty baffled as to how it got spun around. But, since there is no way of proving it, what's the point in stating it as fact? If it is true though, it's not an 'alternative fact', it's just a 'fact'. I really don't even know what an 'alternative fact' is; except to say that you get to create your own facts as an alternative to the FACTS that are already out there - basically a lie.
 
Top