This Is A Lie

With political books or movies there is opposition waiting to smear and discredit the author and message. The accusations are returned and then returned again. This is politics.

I've been thinking about this cycle since reading Al Franken's book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them". In his book he directly accuses (with references and examples) a handful of conservatives of being liars. Since then, I have found numerous web sites dedicated to discrediting him and his work. The same behaviour can be found with leftist Michael Moore (Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Stupid White Men, Fahrenheit 9/11, etc.) and Bjørn Lomborg (The Skeptical Environmentalist), and so on.

I find it difficult to take sides when any claim of truth is followed by accusations of incompentence and cluelessness. So what is truth, I asked myself? To my surprise I found the following dictionary definition:

truth ( P ) Pronunciation Key (trth)
n. pl. truths (trthz, trths)

1. Conformity to fact or actuality.
2. A statement proven to be or accepted as true.
3. Sincerity; integrity.
4. Fidelity to an original or standard.
5. 
   
1. Reality; actuality.
2. often Truth That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.

I couldn't believe what I read. The factuality of a statement can be false, but truthful if accepted as being true, by definition! So telling the truth is a matter of being charasmatic, persuasive, and deceitful, even if what is said is factual.

This isn't anything new. Politics has always been about pursuading the masses for a vote. However, I never expected the behaviour of accepted lying to be defined as truth!