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Notes -
The flyer is not relevant to the hentai tab, which was the example I was giving. Why are you trying to change it?
I never said it's widespread. In fact, I think it's pretty rare, but it happens so it shouldn't be discounted.
Why? The scenario we're discussing is when someone would end up looking bad by saying the truth, which means there's a lot of evidence that ends up being misleading. However often that happens, in order to show you an example of that, I'd need to find a sub-group of that scenario, where originally the evidence was strongly pointing one way, but it later was proven to be misleading, which is even more rare.
Which is why I asked you have you never been in that position? Has no one ever lied to others about you, and you were at least temporarily unable to prove they were lying?
I could come up with one or two more if I jogged my memory, but before I do I want to make sure there's a point to that. Originally I thought you asked for an example because you didn't understand the type of scenario I'm talking about. This question makes it look like your questions are rhetorical. That you're not curious, but trying to win an argument.
I interpreted your response to my "why didn't Nixon say anything?" question to posit the theory that Nixon decided to stay quiet because he was concerned that his attempt to tell the truth would make it look like he's just digging his own hole further. My assumption is that he would only have this concern if there was a generalizable cautionary tale establishing it as a viable danger, otherwise why else would he preemptively decide to stay quiet?
Did I misunderstand your response?
I don't know. Your responses seem almost tailor-made to maximize misunderstanding, and I don't want to get into the weeds of what does you mean by "generalizable" or "viable".
Can we start with my original question, have you ever been in a situation like the one I described, or at least knew anyone that was? If not, do you see how in the Eichenwald example I gave telling the truth could make him look worse, if he didn't have supporting evidence?
Regarding your Eichenwald example, I realize now I misinterpreted "telling the truth" to refer to the authenticity of the anti-semitic flyer, rather than the reason for the Hentai tab.
Assuming the conversation with his wife actually happened but Eichenwald had no evidence to showcase, I would agree his explanation would sound suspicious. I don't think it would be an example of him digging a hole deeper though because I don't see anything immediately objectionable about "I know this is going to sound crazy and I can't prove it, but I really was having a conversation with my wife about tentacle porn."
Which gets to your assumption. The fact that he did post screenshots with his wife illustrates that even with something as banal as an errant Hentai tab, there's the possibility of circumstantial evidence out there somewhere. That's why the assumption of "Nixon uncovered who secretly assassinated JFK but has access to zero evidence" strikes me as too unrealistic to be worth entertaining.
Emphasis on "possibility". There's also the possibility that you will not have any evidence. And given that I was supposed to give an example of telling the truth making you look bad, I am somewhat limited to events that have been in some way confirmed to be true, no?
It's not an assumption, it was a possible to answer to the question of "why wouldn't he say anything?".
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