I think it would be better to describe Jim's response as one which acknowledges that we don't know everything about Gates ............ Calling this naive presumes ....

DTB, you mix up two different posts. I did not use the word "naïve" in the context of what Jim wrote about Bill Gates. It was about "Gain of function" research.


Perhaps naïve has a less pejorative connotation in German. Naiv - natürlich, unbefangen, treuherzig, arglos - all seem fairly harmless (natural, impartial, trusting, guileless...) In English, it has more of a sense of stupidly oblivious to an obvious problem.

DTB, thank you for clarifying! Your German apparently is better than my English. You are absolutely correct. In German (and French too, I think?) "naïve" is used when you with sympathy smile at a child and stroke his head who we say "naiv" thinks it just have to open it's mouth and bananas or ice-cream will be falling in it from the sky (Maybe "innocent" is the English equivalent for how we use "naiv").

There are several language traps like that for a German trying to speak English. For years I said "That's irritating" or "I am irritated" when an American friend said something I did not understand. She always was baffled: "Why are you irritated?" and that reply always baffled me --- until we some day found out that when I said "irritated" I meant "confused", as the German "irritiert" means exactly that, without any negative emotional connotation like the English "irritated".

So guys, please give us non-native English speakers a bit of leniency. As we are all friends here, any offense felt might simply be based on a misunderstanding.