As soon as this identification is given up and that distinction is made it is at least an open question whether things exist independently of the mind, and idealism insofar it neglects this distinction and holds fast to that identification is refuted because based on an invalid argument.
If so, simple emotivism of the sort described is refuted because the sincerity conditions for making the judgment require the motivation not present in the amoralist.
George often used to conclude conversations by saying, "It's all interesting," which I did for a while, too, after he died, because I was confident that it was a cool thing to say, something that couldn't be refuted, and because it was a means of evoking him.
It could not be refuted by experiment because it functioned as a definition of "free fall".
Following Āryadeva's observation, Candrakīrti says that the Mādhyamika cannot be refuted, precisely because he has no position to defend.
The statement of Ozasa et al. (2012) that the data do not support any non-zero threshold is of little value because it cannot be refuted.
On the other hand, the mere suspicion that an observed association is due to confounding does not conform to scientific reasoning because it cannot be refuted by a finite sequence of empirical tests.
Thus, the washout effect has not been proven, but neither can it be refuted.
All of it can be refuted with data, and argument.
