Note on the word “deceptive”: I need some word to talk about the concept of “saying something that has the causal effect of listeners making less accurate predictions about reality, when the speaker possessed the knowledge to not do so, and attempts to correct the error will be resisted.” (The part about resistence to correction is important for distinguishing “deception”-in-this-sense from simple mistakes: if I erroneously claim that 57 is prime and someone points out that it’s not, I’ll immediately say, “Oops, you’re right,” rather than digging my heels in.)
I’m sympathetic to the criticism that lying isn’t the right word for this; so far my best alternatives are “deceptive” and “misleading.” If someone thinks those are still too inappropriately judgey-blamey, I’m eager to hear alternatives, or to use a neologism for the purposes of a particular conversation, but ultimately, I need a word for the thing.
FWIW I think “deceptive” and “misleading” are pretty fine here (depends somewhat on context but I’ve thought the language everyone’s been using in this thread so far was fine)
I think the active-ingredient in the “there’s something resisting correction” has a flavor that isn’t quite captured by deceptive (self-deceptive is closer). I think the phrase that most captures this for me is perniciously motivated, or something like that.
FWIW I think “deceptive” and “misleading” are pretty fine here (depends somewhat on context but I’ve thought the language everyone’s been using in this thread so far was fine)
I think the active-ingredient in the “there’s something resisting correction” has a flavor that isn’t quite captured by deceptive (self-deceptive is closer). I think the phrase that most captures this for me is perniciously motivated, or something like that.