Yeah, lie to the public for the greater good. If lying gets more people to wear masks and get vaccinated, and can prevent thousands of deaths, so be it. What's wrong with lying?

No, don't lie to the public. That's what happened in the first place. "Pfft... you don't need masks." The government said that because masks were hard to get and they wanted to control public behavior. This turned out to be a lie, everyone found out, then regardless of whether the authorities were giving good, accurate advice or not, the trust had been breached.

Politicians saw this as an opportunity to gain ground. In the absence of any trusted authority it became an us vs. them thing for too many people.

Don't lie to the public. Tell them the truth, tell them what they ought to do, and why you think so. Earn trust. It'll be easier to get people to do the right thing.

""Pfft... you don't need masks." The government said that because masks were hard to get and they wanted to control public behavior. This turned out to be a lie,..."

This is false.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28201328

Because democracy is much better than some kind of authoritarian system where the common people are considered stupid and ignorant and undeserving of having a say in how their society is ran.

The big problem here is that many people don’t think democracy is worth preserving, and they’re fine being lied to as long as they’re comfortable and have competent leaders. Except…. when the democratic checks and balances that keep the powers that be in check fail everything goes to shit. First slowly, then quickly.

I don’t want to turn this into an overly political rant, but if you look at recent history it’s not hard to see how bad things happen when politicians and other authority figures can lie with impunity.

The problem with it is that you lose trust.

If I know you lied about the efficacy of the vaccine then how do I know you didn't lie about the chance of bad side effects too?

Because invariably the truth eventually comes out and then people trust their government even less? Then when the next crisis comes along it doesn't matter if you lie or tell the truth, the public won't listen anyway.

> What's wrong with lying

Where to start.

First of all, dignity.

Mental pollution.

Problematic instancing of what is «greater good».

Retribution.

Precendents and possibility of abuse.

Alienating all those who immediately cease trust [against the matter] in front of what smells of a lie.

Cessation of trust [against the agent].

...There must be more.

Lying works the first time. After you've lost people's trust, they are less likely to listen the second time, even if you're telling the truth the second time.