Uri Geller Quotes

A critical difference between English and American law is that truth is an absolute defense in the U. S. but is not in Great Britain. In the case of public figures, "the great," even truth is not required in U. S. law. It is not against American law to slander public figures as long as it is not malicious.

This quotation is the root of a great dilemma for all politicians who are attacked on a personal level. Most slanders are soon forgotten. The politician who reacts and publicly counters the slander inevitably does two things. More people become aware of the slanderous charges then there is a public battle over it, and the media tend to report the contest and hence the slanderous charge for a longer period of time than if it were uncontested. However sometimes the undefended charge is perceived as being true especially if it is a major charge. If the politician does not defend, the charge can get accepted and damage the politician’s standing. In the Kerry-Bush Prudential campaign, Kerry had the edge until the so-called Swiftboat Veterans made up a fictitious tale of Kerry, a decorated war hero, being a coward in the Vietnam war. Kerry thought the charge so preposterous that he didn’t bother to defend it. His lack of reaction was taken by much of the public as his admission of the charge. Kerry’s hero image was destroyed by a large enough proportion of the electorate that the electoral votes shifted to Bush, even though Kerry had the most votes by far. For each politician, the decision must be made for each charge and there is no clear way to know in advance which is the better strategy when a false charge is made.

Ad hominum attacks are attacks against the person—not his views or arguments against them and not even what he has allegedly done or the consequences of what he has done to others. It is direct character assassination. This is much more effective than trying to argue what wrong has been done. It has been a very common tactic of the Right Wing Republicans and the Tea Party against liberals and supporters if desegregation, and has also been used by extreme leftists in attacking powerful industrialists. When Assange published thousands of State Department cables, many of which exposed the fact that Government officials had been lying to the public and Congress while under oath, there was a massive ad hominum attack on Assange casting aspersions on any information he might claim is real, but never once denying that any of the cables were genuine. The attacks claimed that Assange’s publication would cause American agents throughout the world to be exposed and killed, but even a year after these accusations, neither the State Department nor the intelligence agencies could point to a single case where an American agent had come to harm. The embarrassment was however profound, and some governments were outraged that their confidential dealings with the United State had been exposed to public scrutiny.

1st Baron Verulam