'to debunk' is an interesting verb:
to show that something is less important, less good, or less true than it has been made to appear: "debunk a myth": "The writer's aim was to debunk the myth that had grown up around the actress." DEBUNK | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
If you debunk a widely held belief, you show that it is false. If you debunk something that is widely admired, you show that it is not as good as people think it is. DEBUNK definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
To debunk something is to take the bunk out of it—that bunk being “nonsense.” (Bunk is short for the synonymous bunkum, which has political origins.) Debunk has been in use since at least the 1920s, and it contrasts with synonyms like disprove and rebut by suggesting that something is not merely untrue but is also a sham—a trick meant to deceive. One can simply disprove a myth, but if it is debunked, the implication is that the myth was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim. DEBUNK Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
There's a lot of grossly exaggerated [over-the-top, blown out of all proportion, bigger than it really is] and foolish [very silly, not at all smart] claims being made...
In politics: 'All of us have a responsibility to debunk myths targeting refugees' | The National and Seven common tropes used to deny Gaza’s famine, debunked by an expert | The Telegraph
When it comes to conspiracy theories: 4 Ways Oncologists Use Social Media to Debunk Myths and Dispel Misinformation and Moon landing conspiracy theories, debunked | Royal Museums Greenwich
Even in sport: Debunking Outlandish Stances on Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence
The scientist, researcher and writer Emma Monk has been debunking since the Covid pandemic: I now split my time between working as a Research Scientist in the Biotech industry and debunking spurious misinformation online. Science — Emma Monk
For example, from 2022, she was interviewed by the BBC: Social media and some news outlets have spread claims this week that only around 17,000 people have actually died of Covid. We debunk. More or Less - BBC Sounds
Last year, four years on from Brexit, she debunked the myths around what happened since then in several iconic industries: How fishing was gutted by Brexit, Brexit and farming and It's time to face the music - four years on from Brexit - West Country Voices.
Here she is being interviewed this week by Ian Winwood in The New World: Emma Monk, the one-woman debunking machine:

No comments:
Post a Comment