Does the word truth mean ... anything?

River

Active member
President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Sunday claimed “truth isn’t truth” when trying to explain why the president should not testify for special counsel Robert Mueller for fear of being trapped into a lie that could lead to a perjury charge.

“When you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth,” Giuliani told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning

“Truth is truth,” Todd responded.

“No, no, it isn’t truth,” Giuliani said. “Truth isn’t truth. The President of the United States says, “I didn’t …”

A startled Todd answered: “Truth isn’t truth?”

Giuliani: “No, no, no.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/19/giuliani-truth-todd-trump-788161


I'm sorry, but I did not get the memo which explains which very basic words in the English vocabulary are held to have a commonly held ... uh, meaning.

Does the word meaning mean anything?

Does "anything" mean, uh, anything?

Will someone please tell me what planet I am on?:confused:


Does up still mean up?

Is down down?

Is yes now no?

Where are we?

https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/08/19/giuliani-truth-isnt-truth-nbc-rs-vpx.cnn
 
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Lawyer: "Yes, your honor, my client did say that his attic was up over and above his head. And, yes, he did say his basement is down, under his feet. But that's no reason to believe that some people don't have basements up in their attic and their attics down in their basement. Everything is relative to where we are standing--or sitting-- after all -- right?"

Judge: "Right.... Umm... Hmmm. Right and left are relative in the same way? Is my right actually at my right? Or is it at my left when you are standing there looking at me?

You're standing there looking at me on my stage right, right?"


Lawyer:
"But when I look in the mirror behind me you are standing in the smoky green wallpaper kitchen of my half blind, dyslexic Aunt Elizabeth. Man, she was a BAAAD cook. I bet you can't boil an egg, can you Judge?"
 
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"Giuliani spent most of his day Monday trying to clarify his comments, tweeting, “My statement was not meant as a pontification on moral theology but one referring to the situation where two people make precisely contradictory statements, the classic ‘he said, she said’ puzzle. Sometimes further inquiry can reveal the truth other times it doesn’t.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sean-...ve-been-more-articulate-with-truth-isnt-truth


What sprang to mind to ME is that exercise with the card.

People sit in a circle. One half the group sees the card as a white card and says it is white. And it is white on their side.

The other half the group sees the card as a black card and says it is white. And it is black on their side.

The facilitator reveals that both are correct -- it is a double printed card. Black on the one side and white on the other. The "truth" is actually both sides are correct from limited view from their seats, don't have the whole picture.

So that is a case where "the truth isn't the complete truth." It's only true from where they sit and can see. To get to the larger truth, they have to finish checking stuff out from the other side.

So in the case of "the truth is not the truth" from Giuliani... I think go for the further inquiry. What are they afraid of coming out?

Earlier in the evening on Fox News, Giuliani backtracked again, explaining to host Martha MacCallum that “truth” is relative. “And when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because is he going to tell the truth and shouldn’t worry, that’s so silly because it’s somebody’s version of the truth, not the truth,” he said.

He seems pretty sure he has "the truth." So walk it out, dude.

“One person says the Flynn conversation took place. The other person says the Flynn conversation didn’t take place. What’s the truth? You tell me how you figure out the truth,” Giuliani added.

Giuliani talks like he's never heard of hearings. This IS how you determine the truth. Or at least, the truth with the evidence presented thus far. Like the one side of the card. If that's all we got, that's all we got so far.

If more comes to light, then more comes to light then.

It's just more slippery fish talk.

Galagirl
 
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Point being, Trump slithered out of harm's way once again. :mad:
 
It's just weird -- very weird -- that Giuliani said "Truth is not truth".

It's sort of a calling card of the Trump administration to attempt to give this new, fresh meaning to the word "truth". Not that it began entirely with Trump. The G. W. Bush folks gave a similar, quasi-metaphysical twist to the word, too. Suggesting that the word opinion and truth are roughly equivalent, y'know.

If the truth of a card is that it has a white side and a black side, that hardly means that it has either a black or a white side, depending on your opinion on the matter. Right? The truth is that the card has these two sides -- one black, the other white. That's the truth.

And as soon as truth devolves into opinion we will have exactly nothing to work with to communicate or decide anything.

And I think this is what they want!!! They want the mediocre thinkers to get all soft in the middle, confused. "Gorsh, who knows whether there is any so-called "truth," eh? One man's opinion is as good as anyone else's."

Meanwhile, they're dealing from the bottom of the deck.


Post-truth politics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics
 
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"Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says Cohen’s plea has nothing to do with the president. “As the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time,” Giuliani says. But Trump is part of that pattern. He has already been caught lying about the payments to women, and he’s been caught on tape talking about those payments with Cohen. Court documents released as part of Cohen’s plea indicate that the Trump Organization used fake accounting to cover its role in the payoffs."

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/donald-trump-is-losing-his-war-on-truth.html

Now is this reporting "true"? Or is it mere opinion?


"But eventually, truth does to his lies what the ocean does to sandcastles."
 
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It's just weird -- very weird -- that Giuliani said "Truth is not truth".

As I said, it is slippery-fishing. Squirming about. None of this is new.

Now is this reporting "true"? Or is it mere opinion?

Those who don't want to believe the truth when it comes out, will dismiss it with "Oh, it's all rigged anyway."

"Truth" for some people is what fits their personal narrative. They just cannot take contradictions to that. Is it ACTUAL truth? No. It isn't.

And I think this is what they want!!! They want the mediocre thinkers to get all soft in the middle, confused. "Gorsh, who knows whether there is any so-called "truth," eh? One man's opinion is as good as anyone else's."

Of course. It's easier to sway muddled thinkers who don't like sitting with ambiguity or the anxiety that produces.

Along with the emotional voter buttons. Every time there's an election, here come the emotional issues. Abortion, gay marriage, ebola, etc. When was the last time you read about ebola wackies now that that particular 2014 election is past?

Any time something comes out in the news with a big splash with big pointing fingers going "OMG! Look at THAT!" I wonder what the other hand is doing under the table on the sly.

I'm cynical that way.

Galagirl
 
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