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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

I've argued this in another post recently, but I almost feel that we need a new word that means "so gross a misrepresentation that your average person would have a completely different view of the reality of the situation."

I feel like (especially on the Internet) it's pretty easy to deliberately mislead, and then when people call out a statement as BS, it turns into this game of "But see, screens are parts, a screwdriver is a tool!" Yes, I understand Apple is not technically lying here, but they are deliberately misrepresenting the repairability of their products.

It's almost like that game kids play of "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you" when they sit half an inch from their siblings to annoy them.

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"Paltering"

Here[1] is a discussion about how Exxon uses paltering in NY Times ads in contravention of NYT's claims that they prevent misleading ads.

[1] https://heated.world/p/how-exxon-duped-the-daily

New word added to my internal dictionary. Thank you! :)

Great word, thanks!

Here it is in context:

Exxon’s ad in The Daily used a common climate misinformation technique called “paltering.” No individual sentence was 100 percent false, but together they created a misleading impression of the company and its climate efforts. If the Times’ fact-checks are only legal in nature, paltering would easily and always slip through. Oil companies would always be able to pay the Times to misrepresent themselves.

Agree, thank you! New favorite word!

It's a deception.

Apple is not technically lying, but they are being deceitful.

It's about the bigger picture - the purpose of the communication. As much what it leaves out as what it leaves in, instead of it's technical correctness - the press release fits into the definition of propaganda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

>Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence an audience and further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented.

paltering - lying and deceiving with true statements.

This needs more votes, and more attention in the world at large...

Agreed, and I think this very thing is happening. I've never heard of the word "paltering", but will be using it going forward. Knowledge of this word has exposed my use of such a wicked practice.

More people are catching on, but we need more still.

Ha, well, define average person in this case. HN is of course a very technical audience who might be interested in replacing a bad memory chip on a board, but it could easily be argued that your average person would consider a dock replacement, microphone replacement, screen replacement to be the first thing which comes to mind when you say "phone parts".

People who are able to reflow BGA chips are not the market of this. There isn't a magic, hidden tool to get your way around fairly advanced skills.

Is that a reasonable expectation to have?

It‘s funny, when I started reading your text I first assumed that “so gross a misrepresentation that your average person would have a completely different view of the reality of the situation“ was actually in reference to people expecting and clamoring for parts enabling component level repair in a move targeted at, well, just anyone who bought an Apple product.

You see, from my point of view your sentence makes sense in the completely different direction.

Can you understand that viewpoint? I can understand yours, I can understand your disappointment, but it also seems quite weird to me to expect Apple to provide component level repair capabilities to consumers.

But the point is that it's not dependent on any particular viewpoint. I'd argue it would have been much easier, shorter, and clearer, for Apple to simply have said "We now let you change your battery and fix a broken screen." (Don't get me started on the fact that changing a dead battery is now considered a "repair", but that's a whole separate issue).

Apple could have easily been very straightforward in what they are doing, in a way that leaves no ambiguity regardless of what your personal viewpoint is. The fact that they expended more effort to make the reality of the situation less clear leads me to conclude they were deliberately misleading.

  Lie
  Deceive
  Misrepresent
  Prevaricate
  Equivocate
  Palter

Motte-and-bailey?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_fallacy

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