I recently released an episode of the podcast called ‘The Paltering Episode’ (https://evmusings.com/episode/the-paltering-episode)
One of my regular - and long-time - subscribers and supporters sent a message saying ”That was a totally new word to me”
To me, that’s the key point about paltering as a concept: Not many people know what it is so not many people understand why it’s an issue.
So I should probably start by telling you what paltering is. Paltering is ‘the active use of selective truthful statements to mislead’.
Let me give you an example. Cast your mind back to one of the early Pink Panther movies with the great Peter Sellers. As Inspector Clouseau, he approaches somebody standing next to a small dog and asks “Does your dog bite” The man answers ”No”. Clouseau pats the dog and receives a bite.
“I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite!” he shouts at the man
“That’s not my dog’ the man replies.
The paltering aspect of this is that the answer the man gave to the question is 100% accurate. His dog does not bite. But it omits certain aspects (ie it is selective with the answer) by omitting to tell Clouseau that the dog in question isn’t his.
When you’re doing this for comic effect that’s one thing. But when you’re looking at this from the point of view of companies and organisations who can materially affect the climate that becomes a completely different thing.
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