A lie that’s successful makes people believe something that isn’t true; one that’s a little less successful makes people pause and consider the claim before coming to a different conclusion. And then there are the crappy lies that have the opposite effect: they make people doubt the truth of what’s being asserted.
A classic example is Nixon’s “I am not a crook,” which by its denial seemed to confirm everyone’s suspicions about his criminality. Similarly, “I’m a very stable genius” is unlikely to be said by anyone possessing either stability or genius. As for “the banks have ample liquidity available for lending,” it was the fact that this statement was uttered that caused the markets to nosedive.
We need a word to describe this phenomenon, the loss of believability that a claim itself might create. It’s not a paradox (such as “This statement is false”), which is a logical conundrum, but is rather a combination of statement, person, and context that undercuts the claim. As far as I can tell, there’s no named rhetorical device that describes the failure of a statement to support its own credibility, nor does there seem to be a basic word for it that can be dropped into everyday conversation.
I propose the word donjay, for reasons that should be obvious. A donjay (noun) is a claim that, when stated, makes people less likely to believe it. To donjay (verb) is to make such a claim. When we are told “I am a passionate advocate for the education and empowerment of women and girls” by someone whose life has been full of opportunities and nearly void of tangible contributions to that end, we are being donjayed.
Notice that a donjay doesn’t have to be a lie: a claim can be a donjay even if the speaker believes it, or even if it’s actually true. What matters is its effect on the audience. By this criterion, “The check is in the mail” is a familiar donjay even if the check actually is in the mail.
Why should we care about having this word? Lying is a mark of disrespect for others, it corrodes our culture, and it devalues the struggle for truth and accuracy. Further, it’s an attempt to control not just the thoughts of others but their actions as well. A donjayer might not actually care what people believe as long as they act as though they believe the lies. To revisit my opening sentence: a lie can also be successful if it causes people, even those who disbelieve it, to act as though it’s true. Authoritarianism may be built on the compliance of those who don’t necessarily believe.
We can do more than simply be skeptical. Having a label for these attempts to control makes it easier for us to identify the lie, to question the message, to push back against it, to laugh at it, to alert others, and to choose our actions accordingly. This word is a tool to help us make people accountable for how they both use and respond to language.