Refusing to answer lies allows them to spread unchallenged among the undecided
Evidence
But then Kerry made a fatal error by choosing not to “dignify” the Swift Boat Veterans’ claims with a response for two solid weeks while they pummeled him on national TV. He lost the election by a few thousand votes in Ohio. Kerry had no idea we were entering the post-truth era. … The lesson here is that one must always fight back against lies. We should never assume that any claim is “too outrageous to be believed.” A lie is told because the person telling it thinks there is a chance that someone will believe it. We might hope that the listener has enough common sense not to believe it, but in an age of partisan manipulation and fragmentation of our information sources, keyed to play on our motivated reasoning, we are no longer entitled to that assumption. The point of challenging a lie is not to convince the liar, who is likely too far gone in his or her dark purpose to be rehabilitated. But because every lie has an audience, there may still be time to do some good for others. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 315
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Physical reality eventually punishes those who deny it — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 347; Truth-seeking assumptions leave people unprepared for deliberate lying — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3144; Denying a bigotry’s existence enables it to spread unchecked (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Truth-seeking assumptions leave people unprepared for deliberate lying
#complicates(0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3144 - Unchallenged assertions gain credibility with passive audiences
#expands(0.82) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 263 - Denying a bigotry’s existence enables it to spread unchecked
#exemplifies(0.75)