sixstring wrote:
So many people say they that they always like and appreciate honesty, that they hate being lied to.
But I found it to simply not be true. The only other possibility I see is that NT's have a very different definition of honesty.
I've experienced that most NT's only hate being lied to when it has a (possibly) negative consequence to them, and only appreciate the truth when they directly ask for it. But even then the truth is not always appreciated.
I found that if nobody straight-up asked for the truth, and saying it can hurt someone's feelings, you need to just shut up, even if speaking the truth is important in such a moment.
You're expected to respect someones opinion, even if you know the cold facts that makes that persons opinion straight-up wrong.
And then there are the infamous "Do I look fat in these jeans?" questions. As if you could ever speak the truth if it's not positive.
Do you experience it this way?
I think you make an astute observation here. I think when aspies understand that in social and political situations that appearances matter far more than reality, we can then begin to understand the social world around us a bit better. We need to realize that normal people are rarely swayed by facts, but rather by what appeals to them emotionally. The good politician is very adept at appealing to this side of people, which is something aspies lack.
Nor is the human capacity for self-deception always a bad thing. I think we developed this capacity to deal with situations that appear hopeless, and when rational thinking would tell us to give up. But if we can lie to ourselves that things aren't as bad as they appear to be, we can hang in there, and maybe things will improve. At base, I think the capacity to deceive ourselves is a survival mechanism.