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

[Mark Mandel]

No, I think the phrase means "Those are what you call facts. These are what
I call facts, and yours are inconsistent with them."

Mark Mandel


On Sun, Aug 19, 2018 at 4:36 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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

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