"My assertion there is not that I have the right to interpret what people mean. I am saying that if we got a hundred people who said that and explained to them the alternatives and asked them which they really meant, the large majority would interpret it the way I predict. It's an empirical assertion."

......

"I challenge you to say specifically here what you think I've gotten wrong."

Fair enough.

Your top example is an "if." "If we got," "If we explained," "if we asked" and "if we tallied the results." Its a hypothetical.

Empiricism is what we do to test the hypothesis, not to assert how strongly we believe it would go in our favor BEFORE we test it.

I can claim that the hundred might not find the alternatives relevant and would stand by what they originally said, or maybe they'd come to a conclusion neither of us could've predicted.

The hypothesis IS NOT the empirical facts or findings. And claims about how you hope it will test can never be empirical.

Empirical ( adjective: ) Verified by observation or experience, rather than theory or logic.

From Wikipedia;

Empirical evidence (also empirical data, sense experience, empirical knowledge, or the a posteriori) is a source of knowledge acquired by means of observation or experimentation.

Now in the scientific method something observed truly but which has neither been seen by any other nor found in repeated experiments by another is considered anecdotal.

But your proposed hundred people are ( at present ) as real as unicorns.

Once you have tested your hypothesis, you can cite the results of the actual test ( with the names of subjects on file, the methodology &tc. ) This will allow others to see if the results you found pan out when someone else ( several someones else ) repeat the testing for a larger pool or independently evaluate your raw data and your methods.

Until then, claiming that its an empirical assertion when its a hypothesis is a basic fail at comprehending either what empiricism actually is, or what the heck you're saying when you toss the word out.

Empirical testing IS NOT the only standards for evaluating a claim. There are many others. But empiricism was what you claimed about an untested and unobserved belief in an as yet unselected sample.

Needless to say, I disagree with your hypothesis. But at least I know a hypothesis when a claim is framed hypothetically.

Dante