[paulsutter]

Reasonable and true statements:

- "He hinted at use of force" (he did!)

- "I think he's implying the use of force" (you own your thoughts!)

Problematic statements:

- "He IS implying use of force!" is actually just a guess, even if (let's say) it's 80% likely to be true. It's still a guess. It's not something you know.

- "HE THREATENED TO USE FORCE!" you've just promoted your guess into yelling fire in a crowded theater because you're a troll

None of this reasoning applies if you're a cat. For a cat, words and sentences just register as an emotional valence, with no comprehension of what it means to distinguish fact from inference.

If you are a cat, I apologize for misapprehending your lived experience.

[mindslight]

This is feeling like a gish gallop of highly motivated reasoning, and I am having a hard time believing your claim that you're an unbiased "grey" looking for truth rather than merely a Trump supporter in denial. If you want to pull up from this, you're going to have to start addressing the core of my point.

[paulsutter]

Could this somehow be a scissor statement? This is simple logic, there is no motivation here.

HYPOTHETICALLY let's say your uncle has an 80% chance of having cancer. Do you say that he has cancer? Or would you say it's likely that he has cancer?

"Trump's pathetic attempt at saber rattling" is the truest and fairest statement on the whole affair that I can possibly muster. Which is nothing like threatening to invade. Hilarious and sad, but not frightening.

Email me we could even discuss live! sutter at gmail