Believing untrue things has a net cost more often than it has a net reward, but is more often sustainably costly than immediately fatal. Most of us are servicing the debt burden of hundreds of untruths, big and small, but we’ve learned to be blind to it. Like a subscription fee.
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To the extent there are no absolute truths, only degrees of untruth, you subscribe to untruths rather than truths.
Sometimes when others believe your untruths too, it is seemingly rewarding for a while, like renting out a property at a rate greater than your mortgage payment.
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People underestimate the difficulty of outrunning untruth debts. You will probably outlive most of your untruths so you won’t outrun most of the costs. Life is long, untruths are more shortlived for a given person than they seem.
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People miss this because the biggest untruths recruit new believers at the same rate they lose old ones to disillusionment. Your time with an untruth can be short even if it is historically long-level. Untruths only have to own you long enough to turn a profit, not to your grace.
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I’m using “untruths” because these can emerge naturally without anyone telling lies to construct them. Lies are a subset.
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I think a lot of times false beliefs, which come with a tax of sort, are also mandatory. Just like the taxes. You don't pay them you get violence.
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Untrue beliefs can also have social benefits, like a factory in a corrupt town that has to hire the mayor's nephew. calls these "crony beliefs"
meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/
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