Debating Prevaricators | Dissident Voice

A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.

— Not Mark Twain

Prevaricator: a person who speaks so as to avoid the precise truth; quibbler; equivocator.

Tersely; a skillful liar.

Most all lying has conscious and subconscious elements. When a lie dribbles out of your mouth a little ding goes off in the brain that you might not even be able to articulate, but it informs you that what you just said perhaps was not entirely true, or could be a best guess expressed as if it were fact. The half-truth irritatingly gnaws away back there.  It can gnaw for a minute or a lifetime. But it gnaws until it is confronted, and if the lie is allowed to gestate, the prevaricator must eventually employ tactics to evade truth which comes hurling back at them in various manifestations over time.

For every prevaricator there is a general path taken consisting of 4 somewhat linear tactical stages involving the game theory of lying. A game plan to use to protect the lie told so as to weasel their way out of acknowledging the truth before them.

Stage 1: Avoidance

Most people don’t inquire about much of anything, they go along for the ride; those that do ask questions usually don’t ask more than once. So a prevaricator’s first best defense is to keep their mouth shut. Vague denial with a minimum of committed language is typically a great place to start for neophyte liars.

Liars don’t ever intend on winning a debate, in fact, they don’t want to…

Read more