People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook.

人們必須知道自己的總統是不是一個說謊的惡棍。

Well, I'm not a crook.

我可以告訴你，我不是。

That means allowing Americans who like their doctor and like their healthcare plan to keep their plan.

這表示，喜歡自己醫生和健保方案的美國人能夠繼續他們的健保方案。

What do these statements have in common?

這些論述有什麼共同點？

Well, they were all made by American presidents and they have all rather famously been called lies.

我們知道它們都是出自美國總統，但它們為人所知的稱號是「謊言」。

But, the similarities really end there.

除此之外，它們其實沒那麼相像。

Now you can call all three statements untrue, but lying requires an intent to deceive, which means you have to know what the person who said it was actually thinking.

你可以說這三句話都不是真的，但謊言需包含行騙的動機，也就是說，你應該要知道那個人說謊的時候在想什麼。

And that's where things can get a bit tricky.

這就是它們變得不單純的開始。

Take, for example, "I am not a crook."

舉例來說：「我不是一個說謊的惡棍。」

Nixon said it and yet he was forced to resign from office.

尼克森說了這句話，而他也因此辭去了職位。

His successor even pardoned him.

他的繼任者甚至特赦了他。

So, was Nixon lying about being a crook?

所以他真的在說謊嗎？

Maybe, but maybe not.

也許是，也許不是。

He seems to have thought that crook was synonymous with bad person, and for him, setting up his own little dirty tricks unit and covering up its existence, was not all that bad.

他好像認為惡棍 (crook) 是壞人的同義字，但如果這個小聰明讓他能夠因此隱藏某些事實，對他而言也不是太壞的事。

Now take, "If you like your health-care plan, "you can keep it."

現在來看看這句「如果你喜歡你的健保方案，你可以留著它。」

When he was promoting Obamacare, Barack Obama almost certainly thought that this was true.

當他開始推出歐巴馬健保方案的時候，他幾乎認定這句話是會成真的。

He was, in fact, scorned and embarrassed when it turned out that many people were forced to change their coverage later.

而當結果變成人們被迫做出健保計畫的改變時，他是感到羞愧的。

In other words, this looks a lot more like a mistake.

換句話說，這比較像是他的一個失誤。

And how about, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

那麼那句「Lewinsky 小姐，我和那個女人沒有任何性關係」呢？

Here we can brandish the big scarlet L for liar.

這裡我們就可以大方地拿出一個紅色的 L ，送給這個說謊家。

Bill Clinton knew what he had done and any ordinary person would consider that sexual relations.

克林頓知道他做過什麼，而任何一個正常的人都會知道那就是和性有關係。

He knew what he was saying was false, and that's a lie.

他知道他自己說的不是事實，而是謊言。

American politicians, of course, are hardly unique.

美國的政治家，當然並不是唯一會說謊的人。

When Brexiteers campaigned in a big, red bus, the first half of that famous slogan on the side was not quite a lie, but not quite true.

當脫歐支持者在大巴士上放廣告的時候，它有名的那句標語前半段就說了看似事實的謊言。

We send 350 million pounds to the EU each week.

我們每週都捐 3 億 5 千萬英鎊給歐盟。

Well, that was true but the UK got back millions of pounds each week too.

那是真的，但是他們卻沒提到英國每週也會拿回幾百萬英鎊的事實。

That was intended to mislead and it did.

這句標語正是為了要誤導大眾，而它也成功了。

Public figures, of course, have always said things that weren't true.

公眾人物當然也用過相同的手段。

Take Donald Trump.

以川普為例。

He says so many things that are so quickly and easily proved untrue, it looks almost like he doesn't even care about the truth.

他太快地說了太多能夠輕易被看穿的謊言，就好像他根本一點也不在乎一件事的真實性。

Take, for example, when he said that Barack and Michele Obama have a 10 foot wall around their house in Washington.

舉例來說，他說歐巴馬夫婦在華盛頓的家中蓋了十英尺高的牆。

They don't.

他們並沒有。

Many people said this was yet another lie by Donald Trump.

很多人都說這只是他多數謊言中的其中一個而已。

But it's possible that this misses the point, that statements like this from Trump have a whole different purpose, to entertain, to provoke or arouse, rather than to say something literally true.

但有可能那並不是關鍵，當川普說的這些話的時候，他的目的和重點都不在真實性，而是為了去娛樂、挑釁、或是鼓吹某些事。

One eminent philosopher has even given a memorable label to this kind of talk, bullshit.

一位傑出的哲學家曾將這樣的言論方式命名為——胡說八道 (bullshit)。

As distinct from a liar, a bullshitter doesn't even care about the truth, it's beside the point.

與說謊家不一樣的是，一個胡說八道的人不會在意事實，因為那並不是重點。

And if we throw around the word lie when we don't know the speaker's state of mind for sure, then we're weakening the word lie and its meaning.

所以如果我們繼續使用「謊言」這個字卻論述者說謊的動機不清楚，那麼這個字和他的意義就已經被弱化了。

It's better to use other words like nonsense, exaggeration, untruth, or even just bullshit.

這種時候，使用像是廢話、誇飾、非事實、或甚至是胡說八道的字都會比較好。

Using these exact terms will only make it more effective when we catch powerful people red-handed in a true, no-doubt-about-it lie.

使用這些精準的詞彙能讓我們在當場抓包一個大人物說謊的時候，顯得更有力且有效。