A convincing denial?
What the words reveal
A British newspaper has been investigating a historical murder, for which no one has been arrested or found guilty. During their work, several people named one person, a former soldier, as the person who committed the murder. The newspaper put the allegations to the person. These are their words:
Honestly, I’m not surprised because there were rumours in my battalion.
If you speak to people in my battalion they’ll say that. But it’s a rumour.
There was a rumour going around for a long time, which actually was borderline bullying. But there’s nothing you can do when you’re in the military.
There’s a lot of idiots, but there’s no real truth in it.
Honestly, I think I’m from a different walk of life. Joining the army for me was an eye-opener, I’d never experienced people like that
[Asked if he has been questioned about it]
Honestly, like, never questioned or anything.
Nobody’s ever asked me anything about it, because why would they?
Let’s break it down.
The first thing we look for is a straightforward line to the truth. In this case, we’d be expecting “I did not commit this murder”. We must accept that the newspaper may have only printed part of what the suspect said but, there is nothing even close to that in these words.
The ex-soldier is at pains to point out it’s a rumour. He says so three times. Something being a rumour doesn’t mean it isn’t true. I’d have been more comfortable if he’d said it’s not true, rather than a rumour.
He does say “there’s no real truth in it” which is a weak way of stating something. “There’s no truth in it” would be firmer, why the need to qualify it by saying “there’s no real truth”?
Honestly
The next thing to note is the repeated word “honestly”. It is used three times. While, at first glance, this may appear a good sign, it isn’t. When someone is being truthful, they are less likely to feel the need to prove it or convince us of it by using words like “honestly”.
“Honestly” can feel like a noble word, but people use it all the time when they are anything but honest.
For example:
“Honestly, I’ve never been so scared in all my life”
“Honestly, it was the funniest thing I’ve heard this year”
Deflection
The ex-soldier seems to be trying to deflect the allegation and portray himself as a victim of bullying. Again, his language around this is weak. He describes it as “borderline bullying”.
In his words, it wasn’t bullying, only close to bullying.
On the plus side, the suspect does own a lot of what he says here, using the pronouns “I” and “me”. Interestingly, around the bullying remarks, he drops the ownership and tells us the limitations of what “you” can do:
But there’s nothing you can do when you’re in the military.
Questioned
When asked if he was ever questioned about the murder or the rumours, he gives another weak answer
Honestly, like, never questioned or anything.
Honestly, we’ve discussed. “Never questioned or anything” doesn’t include a pronoun which is of interest. He takes no ownership of what is being said and he doesn’t directly say who wasn’t questioned or who didn’t ask questions. “Or anything” is meaningless, but often added to “strengthen” what has come before it.
Nobody’s ever asked me anything about it, because why would they?
“Nobody’s ever asked me anything about it” could be said much more straightforwardly, “I haven’t been asked about it”. The addition of “nobody” and “anything” don’t change the meaning of the sentence, so have they been added to convince?
Answering a question with a question is always a flag that some deflecting is taking place. It’s pretty obvious why someone would ask about it, he says himself there are rumours of it. The question is a device to move the conversation onto a different part of the subject.
Conclusion
It hasn’t convinced me.
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