[Harp-L] Raconteur: A POLITE WORD FOR LIAR

[Joshua Anderson]

"*when a person knows the truth and deliberately gives a different account
to make him/herself look good, gain an advantage or to protect her/himself
from unwanted consequences that person is a straight-out liar and needs to
be thought of in low regard. *

*By the way, there is a commandment concerning this: Exo 20:16  Thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbour.  KJV*"

*Let me just play the other side for a minute*... that verse says "against
thy neighbor". It doesn't say "thou shalt only ever tell the straight
truth" or "thou shalt only tell verifiably historical stories".

Are comedians liars if they embellish truths or skew reality to entertain?
That's gaining a financial advantage over the audience and making
him/herself look good. Rahab told the Jericho authorities that "the men who
came to me slipped out the gate; go catch them!" But she had hidden them
under her roof (Joshua 2:5-6). Countless Jews were saved through deception
explicitly designed to "gain an advantage or to protect... from unwanted
consequences" as you say.

Essentially... *is all lying equal? *Does recontextualizing the *"You'll do
it until you get it right!"* experience for himself make Adler a liar? Did
Reagan making it about "a young fellow in our business" (
https://archive.org/details/RonaldReagan-EncroachingControl) make him a
liar of equal caliber?

Just food for thought.

J. Anderson