[Ads-l] QOTY nominee: "Truth isn't truth"

[Jonathan Lighter]

What he clearly meant is that what somebody says is the truth isn't
necessarily the truth.

Giuliani then said:

"Donald Trump says, 'I didn't talk about  Flynn with Comey'. Comey says,
'You did talk about it.'  So tell me what the truth is."
I doubt he meant that "Truth is not truth," which  remains logically
impossible. He meant that from two conflicting stories from equally
reliable witnesses,  you can't decide without other evidence what the truth
really is.   And you might be wrong anyway.
(N.b., "equally reliable" and "without other evidence.")
Similarly, Kellyanne's "alernative facts" meant "other facts that outweigh
yours."

JL










On Sun, Aug 19, 2018 at 3:53 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> This one from Rudy Giuliani could be hard to beat for QOTY. Even in the
> moment Chuck Todd recognizes its meme potential.
>
> ----
>
> https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/19/politics/rudy-giuliani-truth-isnt-truth/index.html
>
> "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 NBC's Chuck
> Todd on Sunday morning during "Meet the Press."
>
> "Truth is truth," Todd said in response.
>
> "No, no, it isn't truth," Giuliani said. "Truth isn't truth. The President
> of the United States says, "I didn't ..."
>
> "Truth isn't truth?" Todd interjected. "Mr. Mayor, do you realize, what ...
> I think this is going to become a bad meme."
>
> "No, no, no ... don't do this to me," Giuliani said.
>
> "Don't do 'truth isn't truth' to me," Todd continues.
> ----
>
> (I'm hoping Larry can explain this fascinating exercise in self-negation.)
>
> --bgz
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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