"No Reasonable Person Would Believe My Claims"

[toucana]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCuSsbsZsSs

Sidney Powell an erstwhile federal prosecutor from Texas, and legal mouthpiece for former president Trump’s discredited claims about election fraud, has now responded to a $1.3 billion defamation law suit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/22/politics/sidney-powell-dominion-lawsuit-election-fraud/index.html

Far from releasing the ‘kraken’, or providing any factual evidence to support the many lurid and completely delusional comments she made about Dominion, Sidney Powell has now made a legal filing claiming that “No reasonable person could be expected to treat her claims as factual”

The legal argument being made is that her statements about Dominion can’t be defamatory because they were so intrinsically preposterous to start with, that no reasonable person should have been capable of believing them.

It will be interesting to see how this defence fares in court, given that Sidney Powell and her enablers made numerous prior legal filings about the 2020 US presidential election claiming that her canards against Dominion were fact-based and evidential. She is likely to face disbarment from the legal profession at the very least.

[charon]

She is likely to face disbarment from the legal profession at the very least.

Good. Stupid woman.

[Dave_C]

Far from releasing the ‘kraken’, or providing any factual evidence to support the many lurid and completely delusional comments she made about Dominion, Sidney Powell has now made a legal filing claiming that “No reasonable person could be expected to treat her claims as factual”

I would agree entirely with Powell and her lawyers. This is a simple, factual statement that leaves open the issue of the reasonableness of those she influenced.

[TheVat]

[Serpent]

I would agree entirely with Powell and her lawyers. This is a simple, factual statement that leaves open the issue of the reasonableness of those she influenced.

Only, that issue was not left open. She was knowingly and deliberately addressing, from their own trusted platforms; she was knowingly and deliberately inciting to violence a segment of the population that had already proven itself immune to reason and prone to violence.
(And presented those same arguments to courts of law, which turned out not to be.)

[jocular]

Is there a logical fallacy that goes by the name of a "Powellism" ?

[toucana]

It resembles the Epimenides paradox which was named after the Cretan philosopher Epimenides of Knossos (fl. 600 BC), who was credited with first uttering the apothegm “All Cretans are liars”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimenides_paradox

The fact that Epimenides himself was widely known to be a Cretan raised a logical paradox of self-reference that arises when one considers whether it is possible for Epimenides to have spoken the truth ?

Thomas Fowler (1869) states the paradox as follows: "Epimenides the Cretan says, 'that all the Cretans are liars,' but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he is a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently, the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful."

The original lie of the Cretans according to a poem by Epimenides was that of denying the immortality of Zeus himself.

The Greek poet Callimachus (310 - 240 BC) who came from Cyrene in Libya also echoed the same sentiment “Cretans are always liars” in his Hymn to Zeus a number of centuries later.

Sidney Powell’s claim that "No reasonable person would treat her arguments as statements of fact” raises the interesting question of whether she is impugning her own rationality, or that of her audience - Or both.

For those who would like a deeper dive into Powell’s motion of dismissal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iETwWNociM8&t=30s

[Serpent]

The next step, of course is: She was just repeating her President's script, by reason of temporary insanity or perhaps under the influence of a compelling mesmerist, and has since has awakened to the realization that no rational person would. I have a feeling that won't float, either - no matter undersurgents try it on after her.

[TheVat]

For those not familiar with the original Star Trek series, the still I posted from the "I, Mudd" episode is one in which Captain Kirk and others disable a colony of androids by various performances of illogic and paradox, including a variation on the Epimenedes paradox which Toucana described for us. After a sort of Theater of the Absurd skit which includes some bad poetry, pseudo-Russian dancing, invisible phasers that whistle, and Scotty perishing from too much happiness, the coup de grace is administered by Kirk and Harry Mudd presenting the Epimenedean pretzel of self-reference and inducing some sort of eternal loop in the collective android mind that leads to smoke pouring from Norman's ears and system shutdown.

(AI experts like to point out that any such advanced system would have some built-in safety algorithm to prevent such looping. It's still a classic episode of ST, usually found in the top ten list of most fans)

A pity such an outcome can't be achieved with the Right-wing brain. But such minds seem to thrive on illogic and cognitive dissonance.

[Serpent]

We just saw that episode on the space network (Trek marathons of every generation, except the millennials) a few days ago. The series is so dated, contemplating the ideas feels like rereading one's picture books from the nursery - and yet I recall being impressed with them the first time around. Television must have been terribly simple-minded in those days!

[Dave_C]

For those who would like a deeper dive into Powell’s motion of dismissal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iETwWNociM8&t=30s

That's a terrific video. Good for laughs AND current events! Thanks Toucana.

[Forest_Dump]

I have to admit that american news is returning to boring since the great american sh!t show ended in January. Still it's nice to see the odd echo of lunacy still bouncing around. But for me, I have managed to find Month Python and Far Side cartoons to fill the gap but even that seems more tame than it used to.