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Burden of Proof

You made the claim. You prove it. That's the deal.

The burden of proof sits with the person asserting something, not with everyone else to disprove it. If someone tells you a new drug cures depression, they need to show the evidence. You don't need to prove it doesn't work. This sounds obvious until you watch how often it gets reversed. "Prove this food additive is NOT harmful." "Prove this policy DOESN'T work." "Prove you DIDN'T say that." Suddenly you are defending yourself against a claim that was never supported in the first place.

This reversal is not accidental. Governments use it to silence inconvenient questions — you can't criticise the policy until you prove a better alternative exists. Corporations use it to keep products on the market — the burden shifts to regulators to prove harm rather than to manufacturers to prove safety. In everyday arguments, it sounds like "well, you can't prove me wrong," as though the absence of disproof equals evidence. It doesn't. You also can't disprove that invisible dragons live in your garage. That does not make the dragons real.

Shifting the burden is powerful because it puts your opponent on the back foot. Instead of defending their claim, they have you scrambling to prove a negative — which is often impossible. When you notice the shift happening, the simplest response is the most effective: "You made the claim. Show me the evidence." Everything else is theatre.

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