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In my case, the people are not changing their opinion. Their opinion remains the same, just they are bringing new arguments everytime just to prove that their opinion is correct.

For example,

A salesman who is trying to sell a big offroad vehicle may argue that you should buy this, because, you could use this vehicle during your adventure. Now, you said that you live in a busy city and there is no way you could bring this vehicle to your next adventure. Besides, you do not like nature (I don't know why he hates, though). So, the salesman changes his point and says that this is a 7 seater car and you could bring your entire family. So, you said you live alone. So, he change his point and says it has large storage space.

Here, the opinion has not changed. He still wants you to buy the car. He just change the reason.

Some other example would be

You went to a repair shop to repair your laptop's screen. You were suppose to get a low resolution, high refresh rate screen. It was a deal between you guys. But, they messed up and gave a high res, low referesh rate screen. Since, you have already paid for the repair, you want refund, since this was against the deal. Now, he would say that we would have given the refund but, we never had such deal that said you'll get low res, high refresh rate screen. So, you show them the transcript of the conversation. Now, they'll say that, this was never the issue. Since, the replacement box does not explicitly mention the resolution and refresh rate, so how would they know. So, you showed them the serial number on the box and a simple internet search shows the specs. Now, they will give a new reason.

Similarly, when people make mistakes they give reasons to justify their action, even when their previous reasons were proven incorrect.

This example could be extended to other senarios as well. In the political scenario, this could be that ruling party brings a bill to the parliament, but the opposition opposes as it contains some error. But, once it is proven it didn't, they'll raise another issue.

In the college basketball scenario, the coach who doesn't like you will give have difficult test for your selection. Even if you did great in the previous test

In a sentence, it would be used as,

You're a ______ person

___ person tend to go to extreme cases to prove their point

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    You example does not quite illustrate the point, which is a good one. Your example is of a salesperson and finding reasons for someone to buy the product they are selling is exactly what salespersons are supposed to do. It's their job. Your case surely had more to do with political or ethical arguments. But I'm not at all sure there is a word for what you describe. I shall be interested to see what others suggest.
    – Tuffy
    Apr 17, 2022 at 9:44
  • Hey @Tuffy, I have added some more examples. Not very elaborate, but I hope it could provide more perspective to what I am aking for.
    – Deepak Kharah
    Apr 17, 2022 at 11:46
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    It sounds like "arguing in bad faith" - and I don't know of a single word for that.
    – user888379
    Apr 17, 2022 at 11:52
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    It's similar to the Gish Gallop although that usually involves presenting a lot of weak arguments simultaneously, rather than one after the other. On the other hand, the repair shop that keeps coming up lots of arguments for not doing their work is probably moving the goalposts, i.e. constantly changing what they consider acceptable or relevant. There are lots of lists of informal fallacies online, there might be a better term in one of them.
    – Stuart F
    Apr 17, 2022 at 13:14
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    Amorphous, and perhaps illogical, justifications are often called rationalizations.
    – jxh
    Apr 19, 2022 at 19:00

1 Answer 1

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There are a few senses in which slippery is useful here.

not firmly fixed

not to be trusted

MW

This is the underlying issue. The person is making it difficult to nail them down to one explanation, and this is likely due to a dishonest approach to their reasoning.

As a phrase, I like nailing Jell-o to a wall, such as

Getting him to commit to a position is like nailing Jell-O to a wall.

Admittedly this is a stretch, and more because I like the characterization than the literal fit.

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