What is the correct term for a person who twists facts and provides misinterpretations in an effort to appear infallible?
The kind of person who is given a simple logic puzzle, fails to solve it correctly and tries to persuade others that he was in fact correct e.g. by denying obvious implications that were necessary to be deduced in order to find the correct solution.
Sophism, and by extent, Sophists, are individuals who use logic to twist the meanings of words in order to present themselves in a better light, or otherwise twist logic to suit their needs.
This is the modern day understanding of the word, though it used to carry the meaning of anyone who practiced logical understanding, it has come to mean one who twists logic due to the nature of its abuse.
Today, it holds the meaning of someone who twists logic to their own end.
Consider casuist
one skilled in or given to casuistry
Casuistry is defined as
specious argument : rationalization
You also might consider rationalizer, one who attempts
to justify (one's actions, esp discreditable actions, or beliefs) with plausible reasons, esp after the event
However, a rationalizer's explanations generally have an air of plausibility, even when they are an obvious subterfuge.
Weasel is a common slang term for such a person. Urban Dictionary entries lightly edited for grammar and spelling:
Shifty, scheming person that will do whatever they need to to escape whatever they fear in the moment.
A cunning, sneaky person. On internet forums they are often a liar, fake or poser. Will try to extract information from you to share with others and / or use it against you. Uses shiftiness to evade an obligation, commitment or duty. They will make promises then renege on them.
One who is particularly cunning, conniving, shifty, sneaky, scheming and down right sly. Weasels are known for their ability to adapt to any situation and to manipulate it to suit their own weasel ways.
The term is especially appropriate to describe somebody who twists the truth to get something they want or to evade responsibility. There's also a term for the kind of equivocations that weasels use to twist the truth: weasel words. Many style guides exhort writers to avoid weasel words.
I would call them mumpsimus.
adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy (opposed to sumpsimus ).
a person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice (opposed to sumpsimus ).
Another rather quaint slang which I quite like is stiffrump meaning obstinate haughty person - a sanitised version of stiff-arsed.
Perhaps you might mean duplicitous? Which is basically saying one thing (when it suits your immediate purpose) and the opposite, in absolute contradiction (when it suits your later purpose); in the hopes that no one will point out the inconsistency.
