Show me a salesman who doesn't lie to your face and I'll show you a salesman who will be out of a job soon. Granted how much the salesman has to lie is dependent on how good or bad the product they're selling is, but they all do it.
Whenever cities have "honest discussions" about the homeless no one wants to be "cruel", so they let them sleep on park benches, set up tent cities, live in run-down RVs parked on the street, and do drugs on the street. In the latter case they'll even give them the needles. See: Seattle, San Francisco, or Portland.
Everyone claims this is great and tolerant and progressive, but get them drunk and they admit they aren't entirely on-board with this whole "homeless people can do whatever they want, while I get a ticket for parking a bit too close to a fire hydrant" platform they signed up for. And of course when the tent cities pop up everyone claims it's great and tolerant and progressive but does it have to be so close to my house/school? I paid a lot of money to live in this school district and don't want my kids to step on a used needle.
If "muh handicapped" is the little white lie leftie needs to tell himself to start putting a dent in the rampant homeless problem these cities have, then so be it. They can atone once the homeless problem is dealt with.
Show me a salesman who lies to you as big as the average modern politician and you've probably got good grounds for a civil suit.
As for using white lies to grease the wheels, pussyfooting around on what you want, when you have to do it even to a fundamental level, doesn't work long term. "I want to help the disabled (actually IDGAF, it's just because homeless people are damaging the housing market)" are not white lies anymore, the rationale and the motivation are almost direct opposites, and the viable excuses will only last so long.
The result might be what you want but it only works because the general public are buying the lie which isn't what you want. And the lie is the position that is getting more entrenched in their minds. The more you encourage a culture of being afraid to speak of harsh truths the more people will just delude themselves they don't exist because it's out of sight.
Nobody wants to be "cruel" but as long as the prevailing culture is to pussy out of publicly arguing where limiting resource expenditure and preventing damage isn't actually "cruel" just "pragmatic" then shit's just going to keep trending worse.
If using white lies to grease the wheels doesn't work long term, then representative republics with (some) democratically elected representatives don't work long term; because the whole system is predicated on salesmanship to manipulate procedural outcomes.
Even the most honest politicians will tell you "the truth and nothing but the truth" but not the whole truth. Which is just a white lie by omission.
You can argue about the degree to which this is acceptable, but it's a core part of the system.
I mean, I already put the caveats about the delineation between acceptable and unacceptable lies up above, (specifically when you're lying about your fundamental goals, and when the lies and the actual intended outcomes are in opposition rather than roughly in agreement).
And to me the "help the disabled/(GTFO homeless)" lie is well outside the acceptable playzone, so anyone who supports it sounds like they're saying almost any amount of blatant dishonesty is acceptable. And it's a real shame if someone who believes that missed their chance for a budding career as a CNN reporter.
See, I get what you're saying and I largely agree, but this is one of those blatant lies that are just insulting to the average person's intelligence. He could've gone with 'It's an art installment' or similar, and gotten far less raised eyebrows.
I feel like a salesman who takes a rusted out husk of a car on two cinderblocks and tries to pitch that 'It runs great, it just needs a little TLC' will lose out on the sale he could've made if he'd just put it out there as scrap metal, as well as any sales from others that might've been suckered in by less obvious lies.
I mean, not letting politicians lie to your face should be an everyone position.
"Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining" used to be a pretty universally understood complaint among conservatives.
Policy preferences are important, but punishing self-serving dishonesty in office should always take precedence.
Show me a salesman who doesn't lie to your face and I'll show you a salesman who will be out of a job soon. Granted how much the salesman has to lie is dependent on how good or bad the product they're selling is, but they all do it.
Whenever cities have "honest discussions" about the homeless no one wants to be "cruel", so they let them sleep on park benches, set up tent cities, live in run-down RVs parked on the street, and do drugs on the street. In the latter case they'll even give them the needles. See: Seattle, San Francisco, or Portland.
Everyone claims this is great and tolerant and progressive, but get them drunk and they admit they aren't entirely on-board with this whole "homeless people can do whatever they want, while I get a ticket for parking a bit too close to a fire hydrant" platform they signed up for. And of course when the tent cities pop up everyone claims it's great and tolerant and progressive but does it have to be so close to my house/school? I paid a lot of money to live in this school district and don't want my kids to step on a used needle.
If "muh handicapped" is the little white lie leftie needs to tell himself to start putting a dent in the rampant homeless problem these cities have, then so be it. They can atone once the homeless problem is dealt with.
Show me a salesman who lies to you as big as the average modern politician and you've probably got good grounds for a civil suit.
As for using white lies to grease the wheels, pussyfooting around on what you want, when you have to do it even to a fundamental level, doesn't work long term. "I want to help the disabled (actually IDGAF, it's just because homeless people are damaging the housing market)" are not white lies anymore, the rationale and the motivation are almost direct opposites, and the viable excuses will only last so long.
The result might be what you want but it only works because the general public are buying the lie which isn't what you want. And the lie is the position that is getting more entrenched in their minds. The more you encourage a culture of being afraid to speak of harsh truths the more people will just delude themselves they don't exist because it's out of sight.
Nobody wants to be "cruel" but as long as the prevailing culture is to pussy out of publicly arguing where limiting resource expenditure and preventing damage isn't actually "cruel" just "pragmatic" then shit's just going to keep trending worse.
If using white lies to grease the wheels doesn't work long term, then representative republics with (some) democratically elected representatives don't work long term; because the whole system is predicated on salesmanship to manipulate procedural outcomes.
Even the most honest politicians will tell you "the truth and nothing but the truth" but not the whole truth. Which is just a white lie by omission.
You can argue about the degree to which this is acceptable, but it's a core part of the system.
I mean, I already put the caveats about the delineation between acceptable and unacceptable lies up above, (specifically when you're lying about your fundamental goals, and when the lies and the actual intended outcomes are in opposition rather than roughly in agreement).
And to me the "help the disabled/(GTFO homeless)" lie is well outside the acceptable playzone, so anyone who supports it sounds like they're saying almost any amount of blatant dishonesty is acceptable. And it's a real shame if someone who believes that missed their chance for a budding career as a CNN reporter.
See, I get what you're saying and I largely agree, but this is one of those blatant lies that are just insulting to the average person's intelligence. He could've gone with 'It's an art installment' or similar, and gotten far less raised eyebrows.
I feel like a salesman who takes a rusted out husk of a car on two cinderblocks and tries to pitch that 'It runs great, it just needs a little TLC' will lose out on the sale he could've made if he'd just put it out there as scrap metal, as well as any sales from others that might've been suckered in by less obvious lies.