A botched attempt by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in late 2002, demanding evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"Well, I don't know ... a proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it's because it's been proven."
by BlastFurnace February 17, 2024
Get the Proof is a proof mug.A term used in the context of protection from a person who is considered destructive, similar to a "Bull in a China Shop". At the minimum, the individual should arrive with a warning label, or a full disclaimer with a disclosure form attached to their shirt.
by BonnieClyde1007 February 17, 2024
Get the Colletti-Proof mug.The philosophical and practical impossibility of providing evidence so absolute and universally acceptable that it compels belief in all rational observers, especially in social, ethical, or historical domains. What constitutes "proof" is itself a contested cultural construct, and the demand for impossible, frictionless proof is often a disingenuous tactic to maintain skepticism.
Example: Proving systemic racism. You can provide statistics on sentencing disparities, historical records, personal testimonies, and sociological studies. A skeptic will dismiss each as "correlation not causation," "anecdotal," "biased," or "theoretical." The Hard Problem of Proof is that no evidence can penetrate a worldview that redefines proof itself to preserve its assumptions.
by Dumuabzu February 8, 2026
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