LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE! THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIES
Lying Has Become An Existential Threat
by Bill Paton, 3 November 2024, Phuket
In *The Three-Body Problem* aliens known as the "San Ti" are traveling toward Earth and initiate a dialogue before their arrival. Among themselves, they communicate their unfiltered thoughts directly, but when interacting with humanity, they use spoken language.
In explaining human culture, their earthly correspondent recounts the children’s story of *Red Riding Hood*, where a wolf disguises itself as the girl’s grandmother to deceive her and ultimately eat her. The San Ti fall silent for a moment before expressing their shock and insisting on speaking to the wolf.
A few minutes later, once they have grasped that the fairy tale is "not real", the San Ti angrily label it a "lie about a liar". For them, direct communication makes deceit impossible. They find the concept of lying so abhorrent that they declare, "We understand. A liar is someone whose words cannot be trusted. We cannot coexist with liars. We are afraid of you." With that, they end the conversation and continue their journey toward Earth in silence.
That’s world-class, chilling science fiction. Perhaps even more chilling is the reality that our world is experiencing an unprecedented rise in lying. If we completely lose trust in what others—our media, politicians, each other—are saying, we risk shutting down communication entirely, like the San Ti, sinking into a quagmire of deceit that threatens our very survival.
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Lying is on the Increase
Uncovering the truth about lying is challenging. People often lie even in anonymous polls, complicating survey efforts. We do know that lying varies across countries and cultural contexts. Trust levels also differ internationally. Gladwell points out that trust is the default mode for modern humans, essential for larger societies reliant on interactions among strangers. However, this trusting norm can have its drawbacks—Gladwell questions how Neville Chamberlain could possibly have thought he could trust Adolf Hitler?
Considerable evidence suggests lying is becoming both more common and more accepted. People tend to prefer lying via video or over the phone rather than face-to-face, and are more willing to lie in emails than in person. This shift can be attributed in part to the rise of the internet and social media. Lies are more easily detected in small groups, making the internet—with a global audience—ideal for deception. A good part of the answer to the question 'why are people lying more' may be 'because it is easier than before.'
Many, many books and articles have been written on how and why people lie, and there is little reason to think their reasons have changed much. Suffice it to say they are mostly not good. What has changed are the media and nature of lying. Ralph Keyes coined the term *The Post-Truth Era* in his 2004 book, describing deception as having become the modern way of life, something done much more casually than in past decades. Lying has greatly increased since then.
"We are witnessing the greatest surge in lying in human history."
Lying in All Types of Media
Trust in legacy mass media has fallen to an unprecedented low this year, with the United States ranking lowest among 46 countries. It's now common for media outlets to entirely omit the other side of the story. Journalists used to at least make a half-hearted effort to contact the other party, often reporting that someone 'did not respond to a request for comment.' Today, however, one-sided stories frequently run as pure gospel, without acknowledging the existence of other viewpoints.
Lying by omission in news media and governments is also on the rise. Consider the NordStream pipeline explosion. How did such a significant story, about a major act of international terrorism, quietly fade from public discourse? President Biden had publicly pledged to shut down the pipeline if Russia invaded Ukraine, stating, "I promise you, we'll be able to do it." What should have been a prize-winning story instead got lost in a farcical game of hot potato: Denmark, Sweden, and Germany all conducted 'investigations', swiftly concluded them and stated "there is not enough grounds for a case'"; it "it is not in our jurisdiction"; and—most amusingly—"Poland sabotaged our investigation and we will not be providing any further information".
In most countries, trust in online media, social media, and even friends as news sources is even lower than in traditional media like TV, radio, and major newspapers. The surge of social media since the start of this century has been characterized by alarmist, negative and nihilistic content, lacking proposed solutions. The book *Revolt of the Public* argues that this trend has directly triggered public uprisings, citing examples such as the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, Brexit, and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Fake news is now the leading concern for internet users worldwide.
Politics - The Golden Age of Lies
For politicians, this shift has ushered in the golden age of lies, where dishonesty is more acceptable and carries lower risks. The rise of fact-checking sites has unintentionally normalized lying, treating it as routine. Being caught in a lie is no longer so damaging. A former American President who made over 30,000 false statements during his term, may be re-elected in a few days—something unthinkable not long ago, when he would have been discredited. Instead, his lying makes him irresistible to the press and can be seen as a witty strategy to win support.
Even the most absurd falsehoods gain plenty of traction. For instance, a U.S. Congresswoman recently claimed that Hurricane Helene was intentionally created by Democrats, asserting that the government can control the weather and had used this power to create a hurricane targeting states with a Republican majority.
"A person who lies deliberately without any shame is capable of any evil doing.”
Abhaya Sutta (MN 58) from the Majjhima Nikaya, part of the Pali Canon (1)
Lying Leads to Greater Wrongdoing
We are witnessing the greatest surge in lying in human history, and a broader decline in ethical standards. A well-known Buddhist sutra (above), teaches that lying can pave the way for far greater evils. Indeed, most kinds of unethical behavior require lying.
For example, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance reports a staggering worldwide rise in online fraud. In Southeast Asia alone, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into scam operations. Victims are usually lured abroad by fake job offers, only to be taken captive on arrival and forced into scamming others. Between 2020 and 2023, over 100,000 individuals were trafficked into Cambodia alone, where international scamming now equals 40% of its official GDP.
Warping Reality
Dishonesty has also pervaded many other information flows. Products cost the same but mysteriously shrink by small amounts. Governments tinker with the definitions of unemployment or cost-of-living to make them lower.
GDP figures, too, are misleading: For example, U.S. federal government spending will total $6.8 trillion in 2024, with only $4.9 trillion covered by revenue. The remaining $1.9 trillion, or 7% of GDP, is being borrowed. Yet, Americans are told that their economy is 'booming', "the envy of the world", with Gross Domestic Product projected to grow by 2.7% in 2024. In reality, 7% of that "Gross Domestic Product" is debt-fueled consumption, not production at all, nor investment, and with much of it borrowed abroad.
There are also serious reasons to doubt Europe's claim to be growing. Industrial production there is in the midst of a two-year contraction; demand for services has also contracted; and construction too. EU growth last year was officially 0.6% (when inflation started the year at 8.6%), and projected to be 0.8% this year. In reality, genuine domestic production in the EU is undoubtedly shrinking.
In a particularly Orwellian move, many in the West have been convinced that China's economy is the one in crisis, growing at 'only' 4.8% this year, "missing its target" (the target is "around 5%"). In reality, China's federal debt is a manageable $4.2 trillion, amounting to just 24% of its nominal GDP. It also holds massive foreign exchange reserves of $3.3 trillion. In contrast, U.S. federal debt has reached $28.2 trillion—100% of GDP—and is still climbing sharply, with its reserves low. Despite these facts, the narrative persists that Beijing is the one facing a federal debt crisis. Many would also be surprised to learn that the Russian economy is growing faster than the USA's or any other advanced economy.
This kind of warped data interpretation molds false perceptions of the true state of affairs. Nonsensical policies are then designed to address imaginary conditions, drifting ever farther away from reality.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Was Also an Outbreak of Lies
The COVID-19 pandemic was a deadly example of how much increased lying has degraded our ability to choose and implement effective policies. Three months after the pandemic began, by late April 2020, people had already been arrested in 40 countries for spreading falsehoods about COVID. Some of these were actually spreading truth, such as the true numbers infected. Most, however were spreading the most spectacular confabulation of lies we have seen in modern times. Hundreds of qualified doctors were caught selling snake oil cures, many of which—such as inhaling peroxide—were quite dangerous.
In Madagascar, President Rajoelina launched, and even exported, a herbal concoction as both a preventative and remedy. Its effectiveness was zero. President Trump famously recommended several useless remedies such as chloroquine, an old malaria medicine. Elon Musk tweeted in March 2020 that there would be 'almost zero cases in the USA by the end of April 2020' (instead there were over 100,000 cases by then and over 1 million Americans would die).
All across the world, politicians lied and quarreled childishly about mask efficacy, social distancing, lock downs, vaccinations, border closures, lab leaks, racial immunity and on and on. To this day, tens of millions of people still believe all sorts of strange, false stories about the truly miraculous mRNA vaccinations that were invented, saving millions of lives. Many died unnecessarily after refusing them.
International cooperation fell to an abysmal low, replaced by selfishness and a torrent of recrimination. The World Health Organization was scapegoated. Governments diverted each other's shipments of things like masks or ventilators. Border closures were based on political attitudes rather than data. Wealthy countries hoarded badly needed vaccines in unnecessarily large quantities, releasing them only when they were almost expired. Humanity's failure to work together, based on science as we learned about the fast-changing virus, was spectacular and shameful. Deliberate lies were a big part of that.
Starting Wars With Lies
Internationally, a major consequence of greater dishonesty has been a decline in diplomacy, especially in resolving armed conflicts or major disputes. There is little point in negotiating if neither side believes the other. Moreover, after a prolonged period of spreading falsehoods about an adversary, direct discussions can be awkward.
Take, for example, the use of sanctions against a country on false pretenses, as a cover for stifling fair competition—violating World Trade Organization rules. If sanctions are imposed on dishonest grounds, how can they be thereafter lifted? What basis would there be for even discussing the issue with the other side? This erosion of truth complicates diplomatic resolution of disputes and undermines international cooperation.
Lying has long been used to justify wars. Indeed, deceiving the enemy dates back to well before the Trojan Horse, while lying to one's own people about who started it is also a time-honored practice. For instance, Germany launched World War II by falsely claiming that Poland had attacked them. In reality, the Germans staged the incident, killing people at a border radio station, dressing them in Polish and German uniforms, and then setting off grenades while fabricating a film.
President George H. W. Bush persuaded a hesitant American public of the need to repel Iraq's invasion of Kuwait by using the false testimony of a Kuwaiti girl before the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The girl claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators at a Kuwaiti hospital and leaving them to die. Her testimony was widely publicized and cited by the Senate and President repeatedly to justify military action against Iraq. In reality, the girl was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Washington and had not been to Kuwait during the war. Her real name had not been given.
President Bush Jr., Vice President Cheney, and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told a staggering lie, first claiming that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks in the United States, and then falsely asserting that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. These statements were entirely fabricated. The resulting invasion and occupation led to the deaths of half a million Iraqis, mostly civilians. Some estimate half a million children, alone, were killed.
Of course, leaders lie the world over, sometimes quite amusingly. For instance, North Korean school curricula teach that their leader, Kim Jong-un could drive a car by the time he was three years old, while state media have claimed he personally invented a cure for AIDS, Ebola and cancer. However, the lies of great powers have greater consequences. Many were skeptical when President Putin justified Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation" intended to protect ethnic Russians from supposed Ukrainian 'Nazis'. And when China and India both claimed in 2020 that the other started a gruesome battle with clubs and nails (because their soldiers were unarmed), leaving at least 24 dead on their high mountain border, which side was lying?
Mearsheimer's research suggests that leaders of 'democratic' countries lie more frequently than 'autocrats'. This year, President Biden reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu "a f**king liar" after Israeli troops were sent into Rafah just days after Netanyahu had promised not to. Similarly, many question the sincerity of the U.S. government, which calls for peace in Gaza and protection of civilians, while simultaneously providing a steady stream of bombs to drop on them, now over 30 kilograms of explosives dropped per inhabitant.
With hundreds of thousands facing starvation in northern Gaza, skepticism is also warranted about U.S. intentions in granting Israel 30 more days to open the border to increased aid—something that could be accomplished within hours. At best, it is cynically inconsistent with the humanitarian urgency on the ground. More likely it is a lie, intended to expire after the U.S. election, with little or no consequences for Israel.
Could Lying Start World War III?
Most chillingly of all, the global erosion of trust and the lack of diplomatic initiatives to secure peace are significantly raising the risk of nuclear war. In the Cuban missile crisis Presidents Kennedy and Khrushchev secretly agreed that if Russia withdrew its missiles from Cuba, the U.S. would promise not to invade Cuba, and a bit later on, would quietly withdraw its own missiles from Turkey, without publicly linking the two. Khrushchev decided to trust Kennedy, and Kennedy kept his word.
Much has been written about the potential for a nuclear world war to begin through the accidental or rogue launch of a ballistic missile. If such an event were to occur next year, and the American President were to urgently call the Chinese or Russian President by phone or video to explain that it was not a pre-emptive attack, would they believe him or her? Would they dare take the risk, staking their nation's very survival on their faith in the other leader's honesty? The likelihood, today, is steadily declining, as trust between nations continues to diminish. We could, in fact, be lying ourselves to death.
We Need a New Narrative, With an Emphasis on Truth
The world urgently needs a new narrative, with better ethical standards (a world where the San Ti believe humanity to be still worth talking to). A crucial part of this new narrative must be a greater commitment to truthfulness. Education, for instance, needs greater emphasis on 'critical thinking' and 'evaluating information' if our children are to grow up to cope successfully with a flood of misinformation. Lying must once again be unacceptable, as when a person was "as good as their word". Honest potential leaders will then sense the trend and seize the opportunity. Such a movement, difficult as it will be, may well be the key to our survival.
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1) Buddhist teaching on the dangers of lying without remorse, and its potential to lead to further unwholesome actions, is found in the *Abhaya Sutta* (MN 58) from the *Majjhima Nikaya* of the Pali Canon. In this discourse, the Buddha explains that lying without a sense of guilt erodes a person's moral integrity, creating an opening for other immoral behaviors to arise.
In Buddhism, lying is especially harmful because it distorts one's perception of reality and weakens the commitment to truthfulness, a fundamental virtue. The Noble Eightfold Path emphasizes "Right Speech" (*sammā vācā*), which includes abstaining from falsehood. Lying is often considered the root of other harmful actions because it undermines trust and leads to further ethical compromises.
The Buddha further emphasizes in teachings such as the *Sigalovada Sutta* (DN 31) that a habitual liar cannot be trusted in other matters. This lack of reliability contributes to the decline of all other virtues, as severing the bond to truthfulness weakens one's moral constraints. Consequently, a person who regularly engages in lying may be more susceptible to committing even more severe wrongdoings, having already undermined a key ethical foundation.
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