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Not Every Mistake is a Lie
That’s true even on Medium
I just accused another Medium writer of filling his “piece of trash” article with “lies and distortions.” Quite frankly, I think I was justified in doing so, although it is typically not my personality or moral temperament to make such strong allegations.
Generally speaking, I believe in giving other people, including those who disagree with me, the benefit of the doubt. I believe in keeping the disagreements to the issue(s) at hand and not making them personal. And I believe in being kind and charitable, as a general rule.
Unfortunately…
Too many Medium writers care more about grinding axes or advancing ideologies than they do about checking their facts.
This was, at least in my view, the case with the article I just encountered.
There are times when a Medium article is so full of blatant distortions and misleading information that it’s just not possible to be charitable, at least not to the article.
That being said…
I’ve often read Medium articles that I strongly disagree with, and yet I would never characterize them as full of “lies.” Why? Because I can tell the author isn’t lying. They are just, at least from my point of view, incorrect.