I started noticing Β when someone I knew explained a questionable connection by saying the other person βwent to school with some of my friends.β But the age gap was over ten years. And when I looked closer, the βfriendsβ they were referring to were their own ageβor older. The math did not work.
It made me realise: proximity laundering is not about actual closeness. It is about plausibility. It is a subtle way of making something that would raise eyebrows sound like just another small-town connection or harmless overlap.
And what is wild is how often this trick works.
We want things to sound normal, and proximity language provides just enough social camouflage to get away with something questionable.
Anyway, just putting this here in case it resonates with anyone else. Sometimes the most telling part of a story is what is not nailed down.
