The consequences for the UK are serious: an official inquiry or heavy regulation often confuses the issue being investigated, sometimes deliberately so.
And, as in the case of regulation, it confuses the chain of responsibility.
So soaps don't want to introduce a whole lot of new people because it confuses audiences.
The "best screenplay" went to Neil Labute's witty blackish comedy "Nurse Betty", about a diner waitress who confuses her nasty real life with her favourite medical soap opera.
Having two versions, he says, confuses consumers: better to run a single commercial which, these days, can appeal to all races.
But this particular map only confuses and distorts the issue, and seems clearly designed for propaganda purposes.
The man who is notionally Mr Berlusconi's closest ally was caught saying that the prime minister confuses "leadership with absolute monarchy" and "popular consent…with a sort of immunity from any other authority".
In fact, says David Evans, an economist at the University of Chicago, he has seen judges in Europe with a weaker grasp of how markets work than those he deals with in Chinese cases.A final cause for concern is that the antitrust campaign confuses and conflates differing, and possibly conflicting, policy goals.
The same sort of question might be asked about the government's elongations of the school exam system.This year, the first crop of students will sit new A-level extension papers—soon to be superseded by a new A-level grade, of the kind that already confuses GCSE results.
Steve Forbes, a flailing Republican presidential candidate calls it a "bogus theory".That is a mistake, for it confuses a changing relationship with the breakdown of a relationship.
This new approach, he says, confuses traditional voters, who make the mistake of thinking: "Yes, you may be competent but you believe in nothing".
