Am Dienstag, dem 05.09.2023 um 20:34 -0600 schrieb Katherine Cox-Buday: > In the US, the phrase "I don't buy it" is usually the response to > someone trying to trick you into something. This is a little hurtful > because it's either saying: > > "You have an ulterior motive and are trying to trick me into doing > something." > > or > > "I don't have the same experience as you, so you must be lying." In the US, you also have multi-level marketing schemes, where people, fully believing in the product itself without any ulterior motive of their own and without lying (for they know no better), perpetuate scams. And since both social media (including our well known code hosting platforms) operate like multi-level marketing schemes and conventions at least have the potential to do so, there can be fair grounds for rejecting ("not buying") them even without assuming malice on the part of the person proposing them.
In other words, I don't buy that not buying something is expressly reserved to instances of deliberate trickery. At the very least, the dictionary definition of refusing to believe something leaves open the reasons as for why one does so. Cheers