My second wife told me many times that I should "learn to lie". She was an expert, apparently, and thought it a personal flaw to not be as good at it as she was. Usually I just didn't feel the need. (Although, for my own safety, I eventually learned to hide things from her, which I suppose is a form of lying.)
But I do see how lies might smooth things over. Temporarily.
I won't lie to say I've never lied.
I don't like making people uncomfortable, and will generally try to smooth things over. Even in online discussions I try to not be mean, even when the person is an obvious idiot or troll. I sometimes fail. Stupid human flaws!
My normal in-person tactic, when the truth might be a problem, is to just say nothing- or to try to say the truth in a way that is less painful. This comes up a lot in social situations where people say ridiculous pro-State things that I want to respond to. The truth would cause trouble, so I try to just say nothing. It doesn't come naturally to me. Pointing out their foolishness will probably solve nothing in that case.
Even saying nothing can be troublesome. For those who believe silence is consent, if I say nothing I might find myself in a situation later where I have to speak up or end up doing something I know I shouldn't do. Like stand up and pledge allegiance to a flag or something similar.
Another problem is that some people just can't leave well-enough alone, and keep prying to find out why you aren't saying anything. Or want to know why you just rolled your eyes.
Telling the truth is better and usually easier, even when it hurts people's feelings. "Taxation" is theft. Cops are bad guys. The State is a silly, arbitrary, and harmful mental glitch. Supporting any of those things is a poor decision, based upon self-contradictory errors in thinking. If that hurts your feelings, you need to do some deep thinking and make the decision to go with the truth rather than with what feels nice.
The truth supports liberty in every case I've ever examined. Even in those rare cases where it's not immediately obvious that liberty is better than the alternative, it is only an even trade-off until you add in the simple value of Rightful Liberty- in which case, liberty again rises to the top.
You don't need to lie in support of liberty. If you think you do, just learn a little more and discover what you were missing that makes a lie unnecessary. It's better for everyone that way.
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