Unverifiable claims are noise
Wishful thinking takes many forms.
Wishful thinking is so dangerous because it feels true. One can be convinced and believe it. More perilously yet, one can convince others that it is the case.
A somewhat common form of wishful thinking takes the form of an unverifiable claim:
- “If such and such person were alive, they would do X.”
- “If such and such thing were the case, some bad thing wouldn't have happened”.
- “If everybody would just...”
All of those claims take a predicate “if” which is known to be false, then follow through to a claimed conclusion.
Well, how could these assertions be proven or disproven?
By the very nature of “if” pre-condition being false, anything that follows it is a fantasy.
It's free and easy to make unverifiable claims. It never bears any cost who claims it, after all, they can never be proven wrong.