What's wrongwith this logic:if you've done nothing,you've nothing to hide,so you won't mind answering a few Q?

Answer 1

Because in this country we're innocent until proven guilty and the government is restrained from unreasonable search and seizure by the fourth amendment (at least before Bush). The fifth amendment applies here as well--you should not be compelled to incriminate yourself. That particular piece of logic is intended to destroy, or at least circumvent those protections.

"This is a version of the very popular 'The innocent have nothing to fear' argument, which is wheeled out whenever authorities wish to bring in new measures which increase surveillance or limit freedoms in the name of increasing security. For example, someone demands to search your luggage. You object to this intrusion on your privacy, but you are told that if you are innocent, you have no reason to object. After all, what are you trying to hide?"

"The argument is a particular species of false dichotomy. You are presented with a simple either/or choice. Either you’re guilty, and so should be exposed; or you are innocent, in which case nothing will be exposed, and so you have nothing to worry about. Either way, you have no legitimate reason to be concerned. Like all false dichotomies, the problem is that there is at least one more option than the two offered in the either/or choice." — Julian Baggini

The logic is the same logic sometimes used to test accused witches in the dark ages called "Trial by Water." In this test an accused witch would be bound and thrown into a body of water. If the accused would float then she would be convicted of witchcraft and typically burned at the stake. If she sank and drowned then she was held to be innocent.

The problem with the logic of both the "nothing to hide" scenario and Trial by Water is that you have no real choice. You are being compelled to cooperate in order to prove your own innocence. Being uncooperative implies guilt directly. Either way you must comply. This sort of scenario is one reason why "innocent until proven guilty" is a pillar of our rights under criminal law.

Is surrendering to that logic a power you want to hand your government? Founding fathers would do cartwheels in their graves if that logic ended up ruling America.

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."--Benjamin Franklin

I do not intend to give up my privacy (whatever's left) or my freedom to choose--including whether or not I'll answer a few questions. Why are there so many people in a race to give their freedoms away to the government? Maybe they never think about them and so just don't appreciate them? How can anyone defend this thinking in America, let alone think it's "patriotic"? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Answer 2

There isn't much wrong with the basic logic (other than that answering questions can be tedious and annoying even when someone has nothing to hide).

What's really wrong with it is that it does not literally say what I think you mean. There's no such thing as having "done nothing." So you don't really mean that.

You appear to mean "done nothing" of a certain type of thing. If you mean an "illegal thing," then the flaw in the logic is that people often want to hide things that are legal but private.

Answer 3

What's wrong with this logic: If you done nothing, you got nothing to hide, so you won't mind answering a few Q's?

I think something is wrong with this logic. Just because a person is innocent doesn't mean that person wants to prove it. Why? Because doing so may violate his privacy rights. Other people would know what that person has done, etc.

So anyone can blame someone else and get free infomation about that person. What a deal!

Answer 4

The questions will be asked about things you have done in such a way as to point that your convering something up and not being truthful. And it will be used against your claim that you have done nothing and cast even more suspician on the fact that you have said nothing to begin with. It is better to plead the 5th so your silence can not be used as an act of guilt in court.

Answer 5

LOL, are you ingesting on the on the spot? i look at myself each and every time i visit the lavatory even as i'm inebriated, it truly is plenty. I do get severe about my seems. I continually imagine i seem as if crap, my eyes get fairly blood shot and my make up receives all crappy looking. i experience ashamed because i comprehend I drink way-way too a lot for being in my challenge (wager it truly is why I drink...). even as the evening first starts i'm smiling even as i look interior the reflect. because the evening is going on, i'm no longer so chuffed looking anymore and that i attempt to, right now, get my face jointly. i imagine to myself, i'd seem a lot more effective if I wasn't ingesting.

Answer 6

That faulty logic assumes that no-one in power would ever abuse that power. Saying, "I have nothing to hide," may be true for most of us, but if the people in power disagree with your politics, they could distort, misrepresent, and use the information in other ways against you and would if they felt the need. This isn't paranoia; it's a conclusion I draw from history. Most of Hitler's political enemies had nothing to hide--except the fact that they disagreed with the Nazis, or were gay, or Jewish.

Don't fool yourselves. Assaults on our privacy are NOT in our best interest.

Answer 7

Depends on who's making that statement. The police? A total stranger?
The police? Well, no, I don't have any reason to NOT answer questions, so there's nothing wrong with that logic.
A total stranger? Good luck even geting me to look in your direction long enough to let you ask me anything.

Answer 8

There are some things which are NECESSARY to hide, and revealing them would be doing something wrong. Not everything is for the public's knowledge.

Answer 9

there is nothing wrong with it, is says thet if youv'e done no wrong then you have nothing to hide and in this stuation, that would be the only reason you woulden't want to answer would be because you were guilty!

Answer 10

Because by asking me questions, your original premise that I did nothing wrong is in fact a lie.