Zell, Chris <chrisz...@wetmtv.com> wrote: ** > You could assert the same about a magic act on stage at Vegas. I shall, > however, continue to insist that, to the extent a thing depends on > deception, it is not open - and to the degree it is open, it is not > deception. >
Then I suggest you examine the rhetoric in any political campaign. Look at my example. What do you make of candidates in recent years who claim that crime is rising? Here are the facts: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0306.pdf There is broad agreement in every data source that crime measured both absolutely and on a per-capita basis is down. Yet many politicians claim it is up, and they often deceive their audiences. Maybe they deceive themselves. Maybe they are ignorant. Perhaps the editors at *Scientific American* sincerely believe there are no peer-reviewed papers on cold fusion. I wouldn't know. I do know that I and many other people have sent them papers and told them about papers. Maybe they forgot, or they don't believe us. Maybe they never looked at the papers. Their blogger Ouellette deleted my messages. Maybe she never read them? Who knows. My guess is that they are lying through their teeth, but I can't read minds. When people deceive themselves, perhaps that makes it something less than a lie. There are any number of other bogus claims in politics, usually ominous, such as the assertion that illegal immigration from Mexico is up. - Jed
