Beware the truth-tellers

I find it is so funny and ironic when a person has to tell you they are telling the truth before they tell you the true thing that is truthful. Today, as part of a otherwise interesting and opinionated post, we learn: I try to be a totally dispassionate truth teller.

Um, who doesn’t? I assume that when any person writes something, they believe themselves to be telling the truth, or offering an honest opinion.

Projection is a sly mistress. To claim truth prior to argument is to accuse your audience of bias or closed-mindedness. Which reveals something about the writer.

It’s like someone starting a conversation with “Hi, I am not lying!”. I didn’t think you were. But now you’ve planted a seed.

A person that calls themselves a truth-teller is not only an egotist, but someone who struggles with the difference between opinion and fact. A person who has trouble imagining that their opinion is not capital-T Truth. Which to me connotes a defensive mind.

It is also a most irritating form of “going meta”. Calling oneself a truth-teller is to make an argument about an argument, before making the argument.

In other words: if you’re smart, I will probably be interested in what you have to say. Show me the product, and spare me the spin.