I try not to be reactionary about linguistic change in UK English, but seriously people, I do not think it is a good idea for the phrase ‘argue that X’ to be used to mean ‘advance the proposition that X is true’ and ’advance the proposition that X is false’.
Personally I would prefer the former, having been established in common usage for centuries, to remain in use and the latter to very kindly GET OFF MY LAND [brandishes shotgun].
But honestly either one would be okay as long as we can please not have people using both at the same time, otherwise the communicative value of the phrase will be nil and people will stop using it at all and then nobody wins.
Is this happening in other Anglophone cultures?
