Disconsolation

[MaggieL]

Damn, I'm sorry to hear it isn't working out. But even in hard economic times like these, there's no reason to continue working for assholes if you don't have to. Don't feel guilty, don't get mad. Get even...and improve your own situttion.

OK...nitpicking time:

Originally posted by sycamore
Not to mention, she earlier inferred that I was not telling the truth.

If you're talking about what you heard her say, you heard her "imply" that you weren't telling the truth. Not "infer". Inference is a mental process; you observe evidence and infer a conclusion from the evidence.

When someone conveys an idea without actually stating it explicitly, that's implication; what they say implies a connected idea that they *didn't* say directly.

What makes these two words so easily confused is that deliberate implication relies on inferrence in the listener--especially when a speaker uses implication to level a charge that they can't actually prove; by only *implying* wrong doing they can deny having actually accused someone of wrongdoing; they're left with the ability to claim the accusation is a result of the listener's inference rather that the speaker's implication. ("Oh, I didn't say that you lied, she must have assumed it.")

Yukky business; if you've an accusation to level, do so, and present your evidence, rather than simply engaging in unsupportable slander and then weasling when you're called out on it.

Anyhow, my point is that inferring and implying aren't at all the same thing; one can only infer from what they know or have heard, whereas a liar can imply any damn thing they want to. So it's an important distinction.