LYING FOR PROFIT [Su, 3-8-26]

CHRIST IN WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Curmudgeon—LYING FOR PROFIT [Su, 3-8-26]

 

I guess it was my mother who instilled in me not just a preference for telling the truth, but a fear of lying. 

I was little—age 5 or 6—and I can actually remember occasionally trying to tell a lie and having to back off. Before the falsehood was even concluded, I would hang my head and say, “That’s a lie.”

We tell lies for three reasons. 1, To make ourselves look better than we are, like folks who pad their resumes. 2, To stay out of trouble. “I’m not the one who broke the lamp…or spilled the milk…” 3, Because our brains are warped 4, Arrogance. 5, To make a profit.

Okay, I told a lie. It’s five reasons instead of three.

But is that a lie? Not really. That’s a mistake. When I started typing, I hadn’t thought of two of the reasons. But if I had said “three,” knowing full well that there are really five, in order to get you to buy my unwritten book, The Three Reasons to Lie for Fun and Profit, well, that would be a lie.

Of course, some folks are just serial prevaricators. Either they can’t tell the difference between truth and falsehood, or they get some satisfaction out of lying, thinking they are more clever than others because they can pull the wool over your eyes.

A good example is the recent Republican Congressman George Santos. He would tell you it was raining even if you were standing in the sunshine. And was outraged when you didn’t believe him.

That’s a pretty good tell is someone is lying—if they are outraged when called on it.

I once knew a man of whom it was said, “He would like even when it was to his profit to tell the truth.” He was a preacher.

The people who lie for profit are the most insidious, I think, because they consider not whether a statement is true or false, but if it is good or bad, as in “It’s a good lie, because our profits went up.”

I remember a TV show when folks were talking about advertising. They all agreed, and the audience clapped enthusiastically, when someone lauded the old shampoo bottle and commercial that said to wash, rinse, repeat. “Whoever thought up ‘repeat’ was brilliant. There is no need to wash more than once, but by adding that simple word, they doubled profits.”

Businesses lie with gusto, knowing we don’t believe them, but hoping, assuming, that somewhere there is a gullible soul who will buy stuff they don’t need. Just make up anything and throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. If it doesn’t, think up something else.

Like those folks who keep trying to get me to extend our auto maintenance warranty. They say all sorts of things they don’t mean. This is the only time we’ll contact you. This is your last chance. We won’t contact you anymore. We reserve the right to deny coverage if you don’t respond within 5 days.

The last one is okay, except they don’t mean it, because I get the same pitch next week.

We are told, “It’s not lying. It’s just advertising.”

I think that’s why Donald Trump gets by with lying so blatantly and often. He’s a business guy. We accept lying from business people. We don’t even think of it as lying anymore, especially from someone like Trump who lies all the time. It’s just the way he talks.

Accepting that kind of lying as normal is why the world is going to hell in a hand basket. And that’s the truth.

John Robert McFarland