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by patrickaljord
4483 days ago
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I'll quote Lea Verou here: "not accepting something as de facto objective truth w/ no info != thinking one is lying. It's being rational instead of emotional." https://twitter.com/LeaVerou/status/445001688923914241 Here's an example: X: The economy of Southern Portugal during the first half of the 13th century was bad. Do you agree? Y: I don't know, I don't have enough info and absolutely zero knowledge of Portugal's economy during the 13th century. X: are you calling me a liar? |
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Harry: I can't afford to do that
Tom: I don't know, I don't have enough info here to know if you can afford to do it or not.
Bob: Are you saying that Tom is lying, or that he doesn't know his own situation?
The big difference in this case is that while it is totally plausible for X and Y in your conversation to know literally nothing about Portugal, in my example it is not plausible for Harry to be unaware of his own situation without being an idiot. So when Tom 'withholds judgment' on Harry's situation, he is saying that evidence directly from Harry is untrustworthy - Harry is either a liar or an idiot. (I introduced the third person, Bob, as in this case Tom is Horvath and she is not the one responding to you, doubting Tom).