PIOUS BIAS
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James Joyner | Thursday, September 25, 2003 |
William Saletan has a follow-up to his piece last week saying that both Republicans and Democrats lie. A lot. Not surprisingly, those of both left and right distorted that piece to make their own pre-conceived point.
My point wasn’t that it doesn’t matter when one side lies more than the other. It does matter. But what matters is the lies, not who lies more. If I say the sky is orange, and you say blood is yellow and grass is purple, the important thing isn’t that you’ve lied more than I have. The important thing is that the sky is blue, blood is red, and grass is green. So when I said “we’re all guilty,” my point wasn’t that your lies about blood and grass don’t matter. My point was that my lie about the sky matters, too.
True.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Comments
And not all lies are the same. Say, a lie about a BJ with an intern, vs.... Well, you get the point.
There is a scale as to the seriousness of the lie, given its consequences.
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Posted by JohnC | September 25, 2003 | 12:23 pm | Permalink
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