What is a Lie?
When I was kid, I was told not to lie. It was a bad thing. Of course it’s obvious that sometimes you really do need to lie. For example, I was mugged in Shanghai (my first day ever in China), and pulled into a back room at a bar by a bunch of thugs. The head thug told me I needed to pay him $3000 in order to leave. He then brought in a bunch of strippers that I had ZERO interest in, and said it would for their services. He even had cameras in the room taking pictures of me with them, of course not showing that I had been forced into the room. I told him I would pay him and handed him my credit card. I lied. He tried to get me to play with one of the girls but I refused and told him I already watched too much porn that day and thus couldn’t participate (which actually made him laugh). This was also a lie — I usually watch porn before going to bed. I disputed the charge and didn’t pay. The credit agent at first denied my claim, but then when I got her on the phone and told her this bizarre story, she said to me, “Wow, what a story, I can tell you’re not lying”.
But lying under conditions of extortion is different from lying when you’re in a position of power. We live in an increasing complicated world, and where do we draw the line between lying, manipulation, and stupidity. Here’s an example:
Tesla claims “Zero Emissions”. Is this a lie?
Yes.
This is where most of the energy comes from to power an electric vehicle in the United States (which is still about 2/3 coal and natural gas):
This is where most of the energy comes from in France:
Sometimes you see a slight variations “Zero tailpipe emissions”. Is this a lie?
Yes. It’s misleading. It’s designed to mislead, thus it’s a lie. I’m from New York, it’s a lie, despite any babbling to the contrary about how it’s “technically correct”.
Why does this matter? If people support electric vehicles without understanding the need to create a cleaner power grid, what is the result? More CO2, not less. Of course this is an extremely complicated topic, that few have the patience to review and discuss. Thus it’s simply easier to lie. And in the case of electric vehicles, if you get people to buy these things in mass, thus giving more money and political power to the electric vehicle industry and their lobbying groups, they can then finally have the power to lobby the government for more clean energy. The lie is a means to an end — good Machiavelli. Right? In theory. That reminds me of the argument for legalizing gambling in Atlantic City New Jersey — the main argument was that money would be used to rebuild and clean up Atlantic City. Never happened. It was just a lie.
The most effective liars are people who actually believe what they are saying and are too stupid or inexperienced in actually following through and effectively getting things done. For example, politicians. So who is the blame, the liar or the those who believe them?
