Assertion
When several things are asserted, the author is presumed to have individually asserted each of them, not necessarily the sum total of them. For example:
The prosecutor asserts that the defendant, a Mr Sweeney Todd, born and raised in London, killed his victim with a razor while administering him a shave, dismembered him with an axe, and disposed of the victim’s body in various locations and by various methods including grinding and baking some parts into meat pies, all for the purpose of collecting a life insurance death benefit on the decedent’s life.
The dozen or so claims in the assertion are each either true or false, but the falseness of one doesn’t invalidate the entire assertion. The individual claims have what contract writers call severability. A false claim can be tolerated without invalidating the entire assertion.
Denial
A skillful denial, on the other hand, can appear to refute the entire assertion, even if only a detail is untrue. Mr Todd, for example, can honestly refute the assertion above even if he murdered and benefited from the death of the decedent (but not exactly in the way asserted). For example, if he sawed (not chopped) and ground the victim’s body parts before baking them into pies, he can honestly say this:
The defendant, Mr Sweeney Todd, born and raised in London, denies having killed the decedent with a razor while administering him a shave, then dismembering him with an axe and disposing of the victim’s body in various locations and by various methods including grinding and baking some parts into meat pies, for the purpose of collecting a life insurance death benefit on the decedent’s life.
On what other bases could Todd deny the assertion? Publish your answers as Replies below.
Real-life Example
AAMCO advertises on radio by playing troublesome car sounds, then diagnosing them as real problems or simple fixes. They close with this tag line:
“At AAMCO, there’s nothing we haven’t heard and can’t fix.”
Does this mean there’s nothing they haven’t heard? No.
Does this mean there’s nothing they can’t fix? No.
What you want AAMCO to say is that they’ve heard everything and can fix everything, but all their ad claims is that there’s nothing they can’t fix that they also haven’t heard.
That does no good for customers who tell AAMCO their problem or for customers who bring their problem to AAMCO for AAMCO to hear.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
He could have used a power saw to dismember the bodies instead of an axe.
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Sweeney Todd could deny killing the decedent with a razor. Is it not possible that Mr. Todd could have killed the decedent with a pair of hair shears?
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he could have killed the man with a razor while cutting his hair, not administrating a shave
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Dang Ben beat me to it. Uhmm Mr. Todd could have killed the decedent because he liked to kill people, not because he wanted the money
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He may have not been raised entirely in London, and we need clarification on the word “raised” which can be subjective. He may have killed someone with a plethora of different tool, also the “while administering a shave” is completely unnecessary. With an axe is again too specific to prosecute him with. Various methods including is good, because it implies there may have been other methods which do not include ace dismemberment.
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He could deny it on the basis that he only disposed of the body in the pie and not various locations.
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Sweeny Todd could have killed the man in order to get his 18th century teacup from the French Revolution.
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He could deny it by saying that his wife was the offender, and he’s only guilty of disposing of the body.
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He could argue that he did not grind the bodies for the meat pies, he chopped them up.
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That was fun everybody. I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope it helps you remember how easy it is to deny a whole long list of accusations and remain truthful.
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Real-life Example
AAMCO advertises on radio by playing troublesome car sounds, then diagnosing them as real problems or simple fixes. They close with this tag line:
“At AAMCO, there’s nothing we haven’t heard and can’t fix.”
Does this mean there’s nothing they haven’t heard? No.
Does this mean there’s nothing they can’t fix? No.
All it means is that there’s nothing they can’t fix that they also haven’t heard.
That does no good for customers who never tell AAMCO their problem; it also doesn’t benefit the customers who do bring their problems to AAMCO.
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