Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by klodolph 2730 days ago
Just as an FYI, “disingenuous” means that you think that the person making the argument actually believes that the argument is false, or is purposefully omitting relevant facts. It is more or less synonymous with “insincere”. I’m assuming that “disingenuous” is not what you meant.
1 comments

I did mean insincere :). Thanks
To be clear it is inappropriate to call someone insincere when there isn’t good evidence for it. I see people throwing around the word “disingenuous” in Hacker News comments a bit too often. It’s an ad hominem disguised as actual discourse and a rare enough word that some people gloss over it or need to look it up. The accusation detracts from discussion about the topic at hand.

The idea that you were misusing the word was more appealing than the truth that you knew what it meant.