Dear Liars

ô creatures of a current year

Aren’t the normies even worried about going insane from all the lying?

—I know, I know, I’m being kinda pedantic about the ugly truth.

I think the only thing ugly about truth is denying it, and letting it fester, but I understand that there are very intelligent people in the world who nonetheless believe that words are magic;

… but more to the point, despite being very clever people indeed, they make the distinctly non-clever error of believing themselves to be clever beyond compare, and thus infalliable.

In other words: Some of you lie because you think it serves a greater good; you know lying is bad, but you’re not quite lying, really. You’re good people, you see!

You have a better future in mind. You're a good person, but more important you are doing great things. Because you decided to. So what's a few minor inaccuracies, about a political candidate or a grape statistic, if it’s just to make it so that people do what you want?

It's for everyone's good!

The problem is, once you start telling a few lies, you tell a few more lies, and a few more lies, and yeah it might get a little hard to keep track of after a while, and for a lesser person, as well you know, they might actually lose track of what’s real--but for you, it's no big deal.

After all, you're the kind of person who, at 27 or 28 years of age, or maybe even younger—you ARE a prodigy after all; sure, your experience is limited but who needs to actually see the world when we can Pwn somebody on Reddit?—has already noticed for sure that they know what's best for everyone on Earth.

So OF COURSE you can keep reality straight through a few white lies you're telling others. You're galaxy-brain smart, you’re Harry-Potter tough and special; your mind is strong--look at all the microaggressions you've survived thus far!

You're a warrior. You can handle whatever you need to do, for the cause. For the cause, yeah. You can stay sane.

But all those lies add up. Pretty soon you can't be friends with most people, because they're going to remind you of all those… minor inaccuracies you’ve spread around, some of which have maybe… gotten a few people killed or graped or disappeared, and yeah they probably deserved it because of who they were, probably, but still there’s this little twingie-poo, and that feels bad. You have a million rationalizations for why you have to isolate yourself from all the Others, but that's the number one: They make you think of all your lies.

No, they aren't lies; I'm not a liar, that's the TRUTH! And YOU'RE a liar! A liar and a fascist... oh my god, I'm having an anxiety attack, you people have triggered me... after everything I've done for the good of the human race. You people are REALLY evil. You people are REALLY liars...

Get enough warriors for truth like this, you got yourselves an open-air mental asylum.

Is that what you want?

I mean, you might get lots of clicks in the asylum. Lie goodly enough, you can even make a bunch of money. It’s definitely not without its upsides. Until the bill comes due, but you can probably make it so the Bad People have to pay it. Sounds pretty good, actually.

Well, in the rare instance where it occurs to you that you might end up as one of the stakes in the mental asylum, and not the stakeholders—the stock and not the stockholders?—

Well, then, don’t lie.

However you think the world ought to be? Don’t lie about how it is.

ESPECIALLY if you want to tell everybody else what to do. You can't tell me how to live when you won't even tell yourself—will not let yourself know—what is going on.

How can you?

I don’t even know how I’m supposed to live; that’s what we’re here to find out. The more we learn about reality the more complex it indeed seems to be…

But instead of being consumed by the bottomless curiosity these new horizons ought to engender, you are more interested in capturing and capitalizing upon your own carefully safeguarded lead-lined box of WEAPONIZED AMBIGUITY…

But it’s all for the good of Hoomanity.

Oh, is it?

Would you do it for the Good of Hoomanity if your avatar weren’t stuck to your deeds like a brand-label sticker? Would you do it when nobody’s looking?…

Or when nobody who counts is looking?

Yeah.

You don’t even know what you believe, can’t articulate it without using the words “I” and “me.”

Me? I’m just here to find out what’s going on.

And you want to limit the facts I may believe. For the good. For the good. For the words you’ve repeated so often I only hear the chirping of the birds, the buzzing of the bees…

And, if there is a god anywhere looking out for us, since I don’t see us breaking out of our shit-spirals anytime soon, we will, I hope, have no chance but to accept the rather dubious help of creatures from a slightly more intellectually rigorous solar system...

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.