Yes, Bev and Jerry, I am now prepared to admit that conflate is a real word, even though my huge and impressive edition of...

(drum roll.....)

*** Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language - Canadian Edition 1988 ***

...does not deign to give it such status.

However, conflate does not mean to confuse. It means to fuse or combine.

I object to the ostentatious and pretentious overuse of "conflate" by certain members of this forum, and I think they are misusing the word. They are thereby contributing to a conflationary spiral.