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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30730 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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I owe no truth to those who value it not. If a Nazi came to my door asking if I am hiding Jews, he’s asking if I’m hiding a member of an internationalist cabal dedicated to degrading all morality and becoming masters of a communist world plantation. I can easily say no, because I am not, no matter how many Cohens and Goldbergs are in my attic or crawlspace.

Ooh, that's a new type of 'mental reservation', one that I haven't encountered yet.

Is that your real objection? If it was instead a serial killer who you believe doesn't have any particularly inaccurate beliefs about his victims, but simply enjoys killing people and has been hunting the person you're hiding as his next target, would you tell him the truth or would you come up with a different excuse for why it's acceptable to lie?

It seems like probably the real reason you don't tell the truth is simply that if you do it'll result in someone's death and no real gain, just adherence to the "don't lie" rule. But if that's your reason then just say that's your reason, rather than obscuring it behind excuses specific to the situation.

No, it’s not my reason for lying. It’s an attempt to change the feeling of “I’m lying” which can easily be detected on my face into a feeling of “I’m telling the truth”, which I can express easily.

You might be able to take it a step further and say something like "if those Nazis were in their right minds then they wouldn't want to kill Jews." In practice I think it's easier to just say that lying is justified sometimes.

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