In Dutch, we have a saying: “beweren is bewijzen”. This saying roughly translates like: any claim requires evidence. Some people fool themselves through proof by assertion: “an informal fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction” (Wiki). In other words: such an assertion or claim is an opinion while evidence or proof is a (legal) fact.
Examples of the above are Trump‘s claims that (i) he won the 2020 US presidential election, and then that (ii) he lost that election due to fraud. Thus far, all courts have rejected Trump’s claims due to their lack of evidence. Again, the burden of proof is with the one who makes the claim.
Both my mother and I faced a similar situation after the sale of our houses. Her buyer claimed damages without delivering proof. In her situation, the claim was even evidently false. In my case, the buyers claimed that they were misinformed. I refuted their various claims and threatened filing a report at the police, if they would persist in their claims.
In my professional life, I learned that some business men willingly overpay for a company. Subsequently, they use the various balance sheet guarantees to claw back money from the sales price. The final proceeds are often substantially less than originally agreed. Many sellers only focus on the (initial) high proceeds of their sale and underestimate such guarantees.
The same issue applies to Love and affection. Psychology Today: “If the timing of “I love you” and sex are linked, it’s possible that a man’s saying “I love you” could be a strategic tactic: From an evolutionary perspective, men might strategically use confessions of love to imply long-term commitment when what they really want is sex.”
Apparently, it’s easy to fall for the proof by assertion. Perhaps, it’s human gullibility. Perhaps, it’s the infinity of human stupidity (quote by Albert Einstein). Most likely, it’s related to the eternal or never-ending cycle of Doubt, Fear, Hope & Love (my blogs).
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” A quote by Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), “an English intellectual, polemicist, and socio-political critic”.
You Say (2018) by Lauren Daigle
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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