Lying without Dialogue
Corona Virus Style
The conspiracy theories of the plague and inquisition are worth realizing. Out of that came the Age of Reason (also called the Age of Enlightenment), when truth began to be understood as to how it can survive. That era, 400 years ago, saw the rules of evidence in law, a modern science based on replicating claimed observation, and, by the way, a free press.
There is now science that distinguishes lies you can dialogue about, and lies you cannot dialogue about. Fiat lies, the ones where dialogue is infeasible for any reason, are fatal…
Trump’s illness is he shuts down dialogue, and his opinions are not based on objective truth that we can all see and verify, and so his lies become viruses.
When your mother said she heard Gates talk, she was asserting she observed, which is what people do to share truth. But when she shut down dialogue that science says is the only way to arrive at actual truth, then she is left with the only truth she knows.
The effort behind the Internet Court of Lies is to provide a safe place for dialogue where the participants are anonymous because lies, not people, are judged. The lies can then be judged by independent people with the opportunity for dialogue.
And, as Descartes (pronounced “day-cart” of “cartesian coordinates” fame) said, “God does not lie.” This dialogue back to his accusers arguably saved him from the horrible fate of others subject to the conspiracy theories of his day.
This belief, that God does not lie, has also served many of us in the quest of the deeper truths of science and logic based on observation and dialogue.
Gates, who I know, believes in objective truth and is always open to dialogue when you can get to him. He is not like Trump who anybody can observe shuts it off with counteraccusations meant to confute and stop dialogue.
I know this wouldn’t work, but after your mother said she heard Gates in person, the question is whether she had the opportunity to talk back to him to figure out what he really meant. Without that, science says, the fiat lies (the lies that you suspect are lies but for which dialogue is infeasible for any reason) will have their way with your knowledge of truth. It is inevitable because of how God designed us.
Read my article, and always happy to argue this. But we must have an Internet Court of Lies where dialogue can be enforced among anonymous people on fiat lies to bring the fiat lies to the light of truth.
Thank you profusely for writing this article that shines a fair light on what most all of us have experienced. The press can work too as another form of keeping dialogue open.
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