[Ads-l] "Alternative facts" for EOTY

[Jonathan Lighter]

OTOH, if a lie is truth if and only if it is (generally) agreed upon, then
a lie not generally agreed upon would still seem to be a lie.

If truth and lies are the only available categories, and truth is a subset
of lies,various statements, not (generally) agreed upon, that are
considered here to be lies, are still lies.

For now.

JL

On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 6:48 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Net finds numerous recent posts asserting that leading self-help guru
> Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, "What is the truth but a lie agreed upon?"
>
> And if a bigshot said it, it must be true.
>
> GB reveals no authentic attributions to Freddy, and none before 2016.
>
> A blog site confidently attributes "Truth Is a Lie Agreed Upon" to (wait
> for it)..."Abraham Lincoln."
>
> Cf. the older and ever-popular "History is a lie agreed upon."
>
> So who, Garson, really introduced the phrase attributed to Nietzsche?
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 8:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> > On Jan 24, 2017, at 8:14 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>> >
>> > A la "alt right"?
>> >
>> > Joel
>>
>> Seems so.  OED, s.v. “alt”:
>> Alternative; spec. denoting a version of some cultural phenomenon (orig.
>> and esp. music) that is regarded as outside the mainstream of its genre.
>> [citing “alt.rock” and “alt country”]
>>
>> So alt facts would be a cultural phenomenon regarded as outside the
>> mainstream of the fact genre (in being, well, not true).
>>
>> LH
>> >
>> >
>> >      From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 8:02 PM
>> > Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Alternative facts" for EOTY
>> >
>> > MSNBC is now using the short form "alt facts."
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 3:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> Wrong! Wrong!
>> >>
>> >> Not a falsehood! It's an important alternate fact.
>> >>
>> >> Also note my signature line of many years standing.
>> >>
>> >> JL
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org