private_messaging comments on White Lies - Less Wrong

38 Post author: ChrisHallquist 08 February 2014 01:20AM

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Comment author: private_messaging 13 February 2014 10:28:55PM 4 points [-]

For example, when the TSA asks you if anything in your luggage could be used as a weapon, you just lie.

Most people are neither too dull to imagine or recall from a movie the ways to use ordinary items in their luggage as weapons, nor lying, when they say no...

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 13 February 2014 11:16:12PM 1 point [-]

Either you have included an unintended negative, or you are saying that nothing in most people's luggage could be used as a weapon.

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 13 February 2014 11:22:25PM *  6 points [-]

Or it's just that "lying" implies an attempt to deceive.

Words are meant to communicate meaning. I wouldn't consider it lying if someone communicates in a sense that properly answers the meaning of the question, even if the question is clumsily asked.

Likewise, I would consider it lying if someone uses words which are literally true, but does so in a manner meant to deceive the listener.

Comment author: private_messaging 14 February 2014 12:36:37AM *  5 points [-]

There's no time to explain in excruciating detail that TSA wants to hear about, say, handguns that people forget to remove from their luggage, tools such as nail guns, assorted sharp pieces, etc, but not about how you can hit someone on the head with a laptop. And that if it's here by mistake, a lot of time is saved by you telling about it and them not having to assume that you're a bad guy trying to conceal it.

And within the limited number of sufficiently short sentences there's not a single one that exactly describes what is meant. Words have to be used, in lieu of telepathy, such as "weapon" meaning something that is sufficiently weapon-like and effective as a weapon to be a problem.

As much as we need accessibility, there is just no practical way to accommodate for communication related disabilities in a screening line at an airport.