Comforting lies v unpleasant truths

"Thanks to phenomenon of social media, the more crucial an issue is in the public domain, the more that comforting lies advance and unpleasant truths recede."

Is this true?

Or is the opposite more often true?

@fmf said
"Thanks to phenomenon of social media, the more crucial an issue is in the public domain, the more that comforting lies advance and unpleasant truths recede."

Is this true?

Or is the opposite more often true?

True to a small extent. Disinformation is an unfortunate byproduct of social media, however (as the Brits say) "the truth will out" Lies eventually get exposed for what they are just as in years past when a newspaper or magazine published a story later found to be false.

@fmf said
"Thanks to phenomenon of social media, the more crucial an issue is in the public domain, the more that comforting lies advance and unpleasant truths recede."

Is this true?

Or is the opposite more often true?

I would take a bt of a different approach:

* People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

* Unpleasantness against people not belonging to ones' peer groups have always been en vogue. That the person uttering the statement is calling it "truth" is also normal, though most often it is "personal reality"

@ponderable said
People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

I take issue with your use of the word "often". I would say that a relationship in which any kind of lie is "often" necessary or judicious is a shallow or dysfunctional relationship. Only on very rare occasions or highly specific circumstances are comforting lies appropriate in a meaningful relationship.

@fmf said
I take issue with your use of the word "often". I would say that a relationship in which any kind of lie is "often" necessary or judicious is a shallow or dysfunctional relationship. Only on very rare occasions or highly specific circumstances are comforting lies appropriate in a meaningful relationship.

@ponderable said
People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

I try to clarfify: One can find a "comforting lie" in most relationships at one point or another. And this might be "white lies" too.

@ponderable said

@ponderable said
People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

I try to clarfify: One can find a "comforting lie" in most relationships at one point or another. And this might be "white lies" too.

Sometime keeping quiet about something may not be quite honest but perhaps necessary. I don't think I would want my husband to tell me everything but the most essential such as things that matter to both of us.

@ponderable said

@ponderable said
People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

I try to clarfify: One can find a "comforting lie" in most relationships at one point or another. And this might be "white lies" too.

E.g. no your butt doesn’t look big in those leggings

@divegeester said
E.g. no your butt doesn’t look big in those leggings

... or you look beautiful in everything you wear.

@torunn said
... or you look beautiful in everything you wear.

That would be a good voluntary follow up.

@ponderable said

@ponderable said
People like to comfort each other, so the comforting lie is often found in relationsships of all kind.

I try to clarfify: One can find a "comforting lie" in most relationships at one point or another. And this might be "white lies" too.

Agreed. I was only querying the word "often".

@fmf said
I take issue with your use of the word "often". I would say that a relationship in which any kind of lie is "often" necessary or judicious is a shallow or dysfunctional relationship. Only on very rare occasions or highly specific circumstances are comforting lies appropriate in a meaningful relationship.

He also never said it was "necessary".

Do you often edit the posts of others in your head like that?

@suzianne said
He also never said it was "necessary".

Do you often edit the posts of others in your head like that?

I didn't put the word necessary in quotation marks in the way you have done. But Ponderable's suggestion that white lies are sometimes needed - in the context of comforting someone with whom you have a relationship - is both implicit and correct.

@ponderable said
One can find a "comforting lie" in most relationships at one point or another. And this might be "white lies" too.

I don't think such lies are healthy or morally sound if they are unnecessary. Would you agree?