23 August 2018
Fallacy In Trumperland
More nonsense (with apologies to Lewis Carroll).
By Neil Tidmarsh
“My people … said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” – President Trump, 16 July 2018.
“The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia’.” – President Trump, 17 July 2018.
“Look, I’m not going to rush into having him [President Trump] testify so he gets trapped into perjury… No, it isn’t truth… Truth isn’t truth…” – Rudy Giuliani, 19 August 2018.
What?! What?! Every pronouncement from the White House these days seems to send us deeper down the rabbit hole, further through the looking-glass. Listen, the Mock Turtle has a new song for the lobster quadrille:
“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting to a snail,
“There’s a Mueller close behind us and he’s treading on my tail
And he’s asking all about the Bear; my friend the Bear is good,
He didn’t spy or lie to me, I don’t see why he would.
Wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t, would, I don’t see why he would.
Wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t, would, I don’t see why he would.”
“But that’s treason!” cried the lobsters. “How can you say he’s good?”
“Treason? Oh no!” the whiting said. “You haven’t understood.
Let me explain, let me try again. I meant to say ‘Couldn’t
He have spied or lied to me? I don’t see why he wouldn’t.’
Would, wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t, I don’t see why he wouldn’t.
Would, wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t, I don’t see why he wouldn’t.”
“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate asked, two thousand years ago.
Well, that’s why we have courts of law, judge and jury, isn’t it so?
“No, no, not so!” the snail exclaimed. “The courts are just a trap!
I won’t let the whiting testify and perjure himself, poor chap!”
Would, wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t he perjure himself, poor chap?
Wouldn’t, would, wouldn’t, would he suffer that mishap?
Not if he simply told the truth. Isn’t that what he must do?
Why should he fear judge and jury, if what he says is true?
“Because…” began the snail (a lawyer since his youth)
“Because… ah… well… let’s see… Because the truth is not the truth!”
So there, m’lud, you have it – forget evidence and proof
And witnesses and experts – because the truth is not the truth!
