Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Plausible Deniability - Cartoon

Plausible deniability (PD) as applied to oneself.


If talk is broad in scope and not like ASSIGNMENT STATEMENTS in a computer programming language, then anything can mean anything else.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/ukraine-transcript-trump.html

In a sophisticated negotiation, one never says "If you do this for me, then I will do that for you. The bribe or extortion is implicit. A classic example of PD is from a Hollywood movie Rowdy Rathore where the villain's son has kidnapped the police inspectors wife. The inspector arrives at the villain's den ostensibly to ask for the latter's help in searching for his missing wife. The villain tells the inspector that he will help "find"the inspector's wife in two days. Everyone knows that the wife is currently at the den being relatedly raped by the villain's son. But appearances are maintained through Plausible Deniability.


Coming back to Trump, his own later Micheal Cohen while testifying before Congress indicated Trump's tendency to talk broadly while the meaning was exact to the speaker (Trump) and to the listener (Cohen). I guess for Trump PD is a way of life. His first reaction to anything is denial.

This article says the same thing. 7 takeaways from the rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president

This article explains his character. Trump thinks Biden pulled a scam in Ukraine because it’s what Trump would have done

There are 3 stages in a typical PD (Plausible Deniability)

  1. It never happened. If it's proven that the event happened then
  2. I didn't do it. If it's also proven that you did it then
  3. I didn't mean it or it's taken out of context.
Anytime when someone says they didn't mean it there might be a larger PD lurking. Meaning that the said thing was done by the person who was aware of what they were doing.

Additional reading
Donald Trump might get impeached? Donald Trump?

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