It is sometimes said that one ...

It is sometimes said that one of the casualties of the general suspicion and mistrust that permeated the old Soviet Union was that the distinction between truth and other motivations to believe tended to break down. Upon hearing a purported piece of information, the reaction was not 'Is this true?' but 'Why is this person saying this? - What machinations or manipulations are going on here?' The question of truth did not, as it were, have the social space in which it could breath.
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 Simon Blackburn

Quotes from the same author

Nobody ever inferred from the multiple infirmities of Windows that Bill Gates was infinitely benevolent, omniscient, and able to fix everything.
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 Simon Blackburn
The absolutist parades his good solid grounding in observation, reason, objectivity, truth and fact; the relativist sees only fetishes.
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 Simon Blackburn
The absolutist trumpets his plain vision; the relativist sees only someone who is unaware of his own spectacles.
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 Simon Blackburn
The absolutist takes himself to read nature in her very own language, but the relativist insists that nature does not speak, and we hear only what we have elected to hear.
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 Simon Blackburn
The absolutist takes himself to speak to the ages, with the tongue of angels, but the relativist hears only one version among others, the subjectivity of the here and now.
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 Simon Blackburn