in 1998: O'Donnell: I Wouldn't Lie To Hitler Even If There Was A Jewish Person Hiding In The House

[nmbluesky]

The Atlantic's Joshua Green unearths a 1998 appearance that O'Donnell made on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show. (She appeared with Martin Mull, Jasmine Guy, and Eddie Izzard!) The conversation revolved around the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, and the "relativity of truth."
in which O'Donnell -- who hates lying --tries to figure out what she'd do if she had to lie to Hitler!

Comedian Eddie Izzard pressed her on just how far she would take her anti-lying beliefs. Izzard asked O'Donnell whether or not she would lie to Nazis who showed up at her door during WWII and demanded to know if she were hiding any Jewish people in her house. O'Donnell refused to even entertain the notion of concealing the truth from Nazis in that scenario because "you never have to practice deception":

O'DONNELL: A lie, whether it be a lie or an exaggeration, is disrespect to whoever you're exaggerating or lying to, because it's not respecting reality.

MAHER: Quite the opposite, it can be respect.

IZZARD: What if someone comes to you in the middle of the Second World War and says, 'do you have any Jewish people in your house?' and you do have them. That would be a lie. That would be disrespectful to Hitler.

O'DONNELL: I believe if I were in that situation, God would provide a way to do the right thing righteously. I believe that!

MAHER: God is not there. Hitler's there and you're there.

O'DONNELL: You never have to practice deception. God always provides a way out.

Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFisw16di3w&feature=play...

Part two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTYtu4lSqfU&feature=play...

Full Story:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/15/flashback-gop-...

[karynnj]

1. Wow - yet she casually lies - on things like winning two of Delaware's counties

in 2008.

[ClarkUSA]

2. Oy vay. A DNC commercial featuring just this line is enough to deep-six her campaign. nt

[Cha]

3. And, yet..she's a teabagger so she lies all the freakin' time..

she lies about lying. Sounds like an attentionwhore.

[saltpoint]

4. Whether someone believes God is there or not, the

ethical thing to do would be to fib to the soldiers and protect the people hiding in the attic.

O'Donnell is a dangerous slurry of base cruelty and outright stupidity.

There are some significant number of Jewish citizens in Delaware. Of those a significant percentage are voting adults.

In a close election, etc.

Vote Coons.

[jillan]

5. So in other words, she won't protect us from terrorists?

[704wipes]

6. Is she Asperger's ?

seriously.

[Gman]

10. No, she's much to cognizant

And she stays in the moment. If the kid I had in my Sunday school class with Asperger's is a good example.

[Odin2005]

14. That's an insult to us Aspies.

:grr:

[msanthrope]

16. Don't insult people with Asperger's. Seriously. n/t

[golfguru]

7. Her and George Washington....

both fanatics about telling the truth.

[pnwmom]

8. Isn't fraudulently living on campaign funds another way of lying? n/t

[kwolf68]

9. This is unreal

I think we finally found someone who makes Palin look more normal.

"God will lead the way" is utter bullshit when tough decisions are to be made. If you're in a house harboring Jewish people that will be surely put to their death you don't fucking meditate or have a prayer...you get something done. You try to protect the innocent.

What the fuck kind of God would say to you to tell the truth to the nazis so they can incinerate more humans?

This lady is beyond whacked out....

[joshcryer]

11. The question is in the second video linked in the OP. Bill: "Oh shut up."

[David Zephyr]

12. All I can say is "wow".

Great find. Thanks for the post on this sick woman.

[denimgirly]

13. Republicans (i mean Tea Party) always Staying Classy, i see.

Absoultely appalling.

[Mimosa]

15. Jawdrop. Time for bed. I can't take it anymore. n/t

[msanthrope]

17. So how can we trust this person to keep the secrets of our agencies? Security fail. n/t

[Igel]

18. Ever have that conversation with a conservative believer?

It's not exactly a novel question. It pops up every once in a while in conversation. I've had such a conversation perhaps a dozen time, often with multiple people involved. (There are a few such questions for various aspects of Xian obedience: Some involve the believer's commitment to non-violence and not killing; others to observance of dietary laws; others to the sabbath; etc.)

Maher's "God is not there" is irrelevant to such a believer; God is everywhere, all the time. If you want to say there is no God to be involved, you can just accept that random, chance things happen, things unknowable in advance--whether due to a supernatural agent or sudden insight or chance doesn't matter to a camera filming the scene. Moreover, it's obvious that narrowing the choices to lying or telling the whole truth is still obviously a fallacy. It may come down to those two choices, but that's not the initial set of choices. Maher's "God is not there" seems to intend to say that only those two choices are possible, to reinforce the fallacy.

The usual outside-the-fallacy insight that most respondents have is that the question's presenting a false choice. It's often instinctively obvious that there are other options: There's deception, there's misdirection (partial truths, if you will), there's silence, there's the whole truth; it's possible that others are present and will intercede, making the choice for you. You might slam the door and hope to run away, not get caught, and allow the hiding Jew to escape. It's even possible to tell the truth in such a way to provide a warning so the guy can find a different hiding place or jump out a window.

Some respondents don't see the fallacy presumed by the question. They will answer that it's okay to lie--or even required to lie. Some will answer that they will tell the truth. Their answer sometimes depends on how much they're committed to their belief system; sometimes it depends on the structure of their belief system.

Some believe that it's okay to break lesser commandments to satisfy a greater one: ox-in-the-ditch situations, David's taking the showbread from the altar, Levites' working on the sabbath; others don't.

In either case, what people actually do is frequently different from what they say they'd do. Sometimes they firm up their allegiance to some belief; sometimes they wilt.

Not going to bother to watch what O'Connell says and see how the snippet of quotation continues; it's a matter of indifference to me. In what's quoted she seems to be doing the outside-the-fallacy dance, one the one hand there's lying and on the other hand there are other choices--although she doesn't point out the patently obvious nature of the fallacy.

[sofa king]

19. Excellent choice, Tea Party. Truly excellent.

Today my favorite cephalopod is the vampire squid from Hell. It is related to squid and octopus, but scientists classify it as its own order.

One has to cast a net very, very deep to capture a vampire squid from Hell, and they don't survive long at the surface because they come from the horrific, haunted depths where there is no light and little oxygen. Their unique adaptations appear ugly, terrifying and useless on the surface.



Thanks for catching that vampire squid from Hell for your candidate, Tea Party! We know you're still working for the octopus, but the vampire squid ain't quite an octopus, as you will learn on election day.