Hmmmm. Principle of charity is absolutely right & proper if one's aim is to get at the truth of things. But not convinced it should govern all our political interventions (online or otherwise). One concedes the terrain of rhetoric to one's opponents at peril, I reckon.
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Slavery abolitionists weren't better liars than slave owners.
- but even accepting your formulation...).Right, but surely the political effectiveness of "lying" is demonstrated precisely in the systemic nature of the ideological justifications for slavery. I mean look at the vast edifice of justification constructed around the Curse of Ham, for example.