Deception

[croman74]

Those statistics could be lying.

[eak227]

Meh... I don't really want to post everything here. Last semester my required freshman English class was actually titled Deception. I've got a 6, a 7, and a 10 page paper on the subject, the last of which more or less is supposed to conclude when, if at all, it is acceptable to lie.

Bottom line is that your best bet is to tell the truth, because your brain is very good at making up logic to support whatever decision you want, even if it actually is probably not the best option.

Personally, I agree with DS in the trivial cases. Society would just not function right if you told the truth about everything. If you're interested, watch this episode of House, where a patient ruins his life because he compulsively tells the truth.

That's all I really care to put out there for now. Trust me, I've heard a vast majority of the debates... with readings from Kant and other places to back it up.

Statistics about lying are always fun though. It is amazing how much lying is a part of the American culture. Lying about the little things is more or less required and very few people will argue that. But at some point there is a line where is becomes socially unacceptable, such as politicians and all these people getting all the bailout money and so on, and very few people will argue that too. The problem comes in figuring out where exactly the transition is, and everyone will argue that.

The biggest issue is that everyone gets upset when they find out they've been lied to... and at the same time most people when placed in similar situations go ahead and lie anyway. We're all hypocrites.