A person who repeatedly switches his stance on a topic

Question

What do we call a person who keeps switching his stance on a topic during a discussion involving various sentences. What I mean is the speaker rejects something while accepting it indirectly. "Inconsistent" seems really close in a general sense. But he rejects it directly and again accepts it indirectly ( and I don't know he realizes that or not) again and again during a discussion.

I want it to have a neutral connotation as the person seems to be confused with his own ideas yet claiming to be right but we never know what are his intentions. Also it would be nice have a "politically correct" word for this.

I am not able to phrase the exact sentence because it is from another language and I need an English word for this activity/person. So every one is welcome to edit the question and add appropriate example sentences.

Answer 1

Someone who rejects a position and accepts it in the next breath, even if only indirectly, and fails to acknowledge a change of heart, is inconsistent. If they keep alternating stances again and again then they’re still inconsistent. We could say they’re hopelessly inconsistent or serially inconsistent; seriously inconsistent too, but serially is more to the point.

If that person firmly believes what they say and does not realise their inconsistency at all we’ll have to leave it at that. But if they are aware of the mere possibility of inconsistency and keep doing it then such person may be a bullshitter in the sense Princeton Professor Harry G. Frankfurt defined in On Bullshit (Princeton University Press, 2005). Here’s from a review at Amazon.com

Bullshitting, as he [Professor Harry G. Frankfurt] notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

Answer 2

Such a person is called a flip-flopper, especially in politics.

Answer 3

In terms of politics, one who repeatedly changes their stance is indeed a flip-flopper.

I would also like to add fickle:

changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.

I feel that outside of politics, this word would be more common for the definition you are looking for.

Answer 4

Hypocrite — a person who feigns some publicly approved or desirable attitude especially one whose private life , statements, or opinions belie his or her public statements.

Example:

Please stop with the false indignation, you hypocrite.

Other words are dissembler, pretender, deceiver, and pharisee.

Answer 5

I think self-contradictory might be a good description.

From dictionary.com:

self-contradiction noun

1. an act or instance of contradicting oneself or itself.

2. a statement containing contradictory elements.

You wanted something with a neutral connotation. I think, in this case, it can be neutral based on your phrasing. Something like

Your argument seems to be self-contradictory to me, because in this sentence you say X which seems to imply you are against Z, but in this other sentence you say Y which seems to imply you are in favor of Z.

If you simply state that the person's argument is self-contradictory that could be considered negative because it implies that they don't know how to construct a logical argument. Or, at least, in the crowd I run in, it would be considered negative. But if you phrase it with "it seems to me" or "I don't understand because X" you are opening it up to your own misinterpretation and asking for clarification.

Another word you might consider is ambiguous.

From dictionary.com:

ambiguous adjective

1. open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal: an ambiguous answer.

2. Linguistics. (of an expression) exhibiting constructional homonymity; having two or more structural descriptions, as the sequence Flying planes can be dangerous.

3. of doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, distinguish, or classify: a rock of ambiguous character.

4. lacking clearness or definiteness; obscure; indistinct: an ambiguous shape; an ambiguous future.

If you are trying to be neutral, again, phrasing would help. I think "ambiguous" is much less "negative by default"--more of a declaration that the person's argument is not completely clear rather than faultily constructed. But I would still say something like

This argument seems ambiguous to me, because in this sentence you say X which seems to imply you are against Z, but in this other sentence you say Y which seems to imply you are in favor of Z.

Answer 6

Not sure if this is the situation you describe, but if a speaker is deliberately switching positions within an argument, simply for the sake of the argument, then he or she is being a devil’s advocate:

a devil’s advocate is someone who, given a certain point of view, takes a position they do not necessarily agree with (or simply an alternative position from the accepted norm), for the sake of debate or to explore the thought further.

Note that depending on how this is done, this can contribute positively to the conversation, or can be used to disrupt/upset/troll the opponent.

Answer 7

You may call that person a vacillator.

ODO:

vacillator NOUN

Example sentences:
‘He mocked his challenger as a vacillator who could spend the whole time debating himself.’
‘They view him as a vacillator whose tactical shifts in the face of foreign pressure have been unpardonable.’

vacillate VERB

[NO OBJECT] Waver between different opinions or actions; be indecisive.

‘I vacillated between teaching and journalism’
‘It's difficult to say, but indeed I am vacillating between the two.’

M-W:

vacillate verb

2 : to waver in mind, will, or feeling : hesitate in choice of opinions or courses

• vacillator noun

Example: vacillated for so long that someone else stepped in and made the decision

Answer 8

Chameleon

1.2 [figurative] A person who changes their opinions or behaviour according to the situation.
‘voters have misgivings about his performance as a political chameleon’

Churchill, for example, was a political chameleon.

Reference:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chameleon