To be clear, I mean to say that they are intent on misunderstanding one proposal from the talk, which is a small piece of what the talk is about. They take that

To be clear, I mean to say that they are intent on misunderstanding one proposal from the talk, which is a small piece of what the talk is about. They take that one piece and make unflattering assumptions about its context -- assumptions which are explicitly addressed in the talk. If they brought evidence or experience to refute the experience of the speaker, that would be a different thing. They did not.