There's a difference between lying and being wrong

I've had a saying on this blog- the truth is a slippery thing.  But lying isn't so slippery.  Lying is rock solid and full of friction so that it can be fully grasped- not like the fish that slip away.

What makes it so?  It is a willful attempt to deceive someone about what is the truth of a subject.

For example, a crook steals something, and is suspected of being the culprit.  Do you think the crook, when asked, will admit to the theft?  Isn't it more likely that he will deceive others in such a way as to be able to get away with his theft?  The crook knows who's guilty- he is.  He was there when it happened.  He knows all the details about the theft.  But he will not tell anybody that because he will be punished for it, and he knows it.  The crook has a motive for his lying.  He gains from it.

Now, suppose there was a witness who saw the crook.  The witness points out an innocent person who looks like the crook, but isn't the same person.  The witness swears up and down that the innocent person is guilty.  Is the witness a liar then?  Not if he actually believes what he is saying.  He is merely wrong.

The truth is slippery here because you've got two people who look the same, but only one of them could have done the crime.

But the liar isn't slippery.  He knows the truth, and he is determined that those who seek him out won't find him.

In this hypothetical case, the truth may become known with more investigation.  But someone has to be motivated to find that truth.  If nobody cares about it, the truth will remain unknown.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that there was a poll which asked some questions about the two leading candidates for president.  Hillary is thought to be dishonest and untrustworthy.  But so is Trump.

I am thinking that there is one of these two who is more trustworthy than the other.  But that is not what the poll asked.  Actually, more people in the poll think Trump is a liar than Hillary.

That surprises me.  From what I've read about Trump so far, the worst that can be said of him is that he exaggerates.  Not the same as lying.  Hillary, on the other hand, just makes stuff up.  She will say anything.

So, I'm wondering if Trump loses the election to a ruthless liar simply because of some of things he says aren't 100% true in all its details.  For example, he is said to be a liar because he said he saw thousands of Muslims celebrating the 9.11 atrocity.  Perhaps he really didn't see that.  But there's plenty of evidence to suggest that he definitely did see something.  Hillary, on the other hand, makes up a story about a video that caused the Benghazi attack, which was proven to be false.  She was proven to be a liar when one of her emails revealed that she knew it wasn't about a video.  She goes to the video stories again by accusing Trump of causing ISIS to recruit based upon what Trump is saying.  But no videos exist.  She made it up out of whole cloth.  She had to be lying.

But if you check the polls, the people think the two are about equally dishonest.  The truth is a slippery thing.  You have to really be determined to get at the truth in order to keep digging for it.  For that, there needs to be a respect for truth.  If you seek it, you will find it- if finding the truth is your motivation.