Misrepresenting means altering the meaning of a fact or an expression to generate a wrong interpretation.
Tergiversāre is a notion whose etymological root is found in the Latin language: tergiversāre . This action refers to modifying the meaning of a speech or an event to cause a wrong interpretation.
For example: “The mayor accused some journalists of distorting his words to generate unrest among the population,” “We cannot distort the auditors' report: we are going to have to tell the president what the economic reality of the company is,” “ “The opposition is dedicated to distorting information to weaken the government.”
Misrepresent to manipulate
Suppose a worker tells a colleague that he will not be able to fulfill his obligation to send all pending estimates to the finance department, since his computer is not working properly. Your colleague, for certain reasons, decides to modify the story and tell his boss that the delay is due to a lack of responsibility.
In the best of cases, when a person is the victim of a manipulation of the truth like the one exposed in the previous example, they always have the opportunity to clear their name by explaining the situation to avoid the unfair consequences of lying . Of course, this was relatively possible until a few decades ago, but with the arrival of the media and, more recently, social networks, the speed at which a slander travels is supernatural: in a matter of minutes, a piece of news breaks. around the world, regardless of its veracity.
By misrepresenting something, confusion or error occurs.
Falsehoods and lies
The ease with which we can currently distort the truth and involve a person in an event in which they have not participated is alarming, and it not only affects the famous, but we are all exposed. Nobody remembers the -not so old- promise that "technology must be at the service of human beings"; Although this is true in many areas, its most outstanding face today is the Internet and social networks, the constant risk of identity theft , the invasion of our privacy with cameras that fit in a ring and the lack of commitment in interpersonal relationships.
Perhaps the most alarming thing about the excess of information that the Internet represents is that almost no one anymore takes the trouble to compare what they read, to corroborate the veracity of a news item or to doubt when faced with an unexpected accusation . There are plenty of examples of montages meticulously prepared to distort a message from a famous person or a company, which when they reach the eyes of Internet users are devoured without hesitation, without requiring validation of the source , without addressing the supposed culprits to listen. his version of the story.
A young man who borrows his father's car and crashes it while driving distracted while talking on the phone, for his part, may distort the facts and tell him that the accident occurred because he tried to avoid a dog that unexpectedly crossed in front of him. of the vehicle. In this case, the young man starts from a real event (the collision), but distorts the causes to prevent his father from punishing him.
Distort how to distort
It can be said, in short, that distorting is equivalent to distorting, falsifying, disrupting or altering something with the intention of generating an effect different from that produced by real events.
It is worth mentioning that, as with many other terms in the Spanish language, there is a common tendency to confuse this word with "tragiversar", which is not accepted by the Royal Academy dictionary. This can be compared to other errors , such as saying "farmacia, comisería, cocretas, dentrífico" or "tergopol", instead of "pharmacy, comisaría, croquetas, dentifrico" or "telgopor", respectively.