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Is there a specific term for this particular situation in an argument: the opposing party change sides to agree with your (initial or not) affirmation while making it seem like this was always their own point of view?

Example:

You: "Proposition A is true."
Opponent: "No, because [argument B]."
You: "But [argument C] refutes [argument B] and shows [proposition A] to be true."
Opponent: "Yes, that's what I said. So, you see that I was right: [proposition A] is true."

I know various fallacy terms, but I read none that focused on the "switching sides" aspect of this. Thanks in advance!

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This is not a fallacy, it is clever behaviour. It can be observed frequently with politicians. I know of a very famous one who said in public: What should I bother about my yesterday prattle? Or look at the current US president who meanwhile turned many of his views by 180 degrees. The list of these examples could be extended infinitely. But in most cases the proponents are not as honest as that one of my first example.

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  • Your answer seems to talk more about the "before I said B, now I say A" case, when my question was more about the "I've been saying A all along [when actually I was saying B]" case. And I mostly wanted to know if there is a specific word for these tactics.
    – user6391
    Nov 14, 2018 at 16:34

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