The lie that infantilizes
Lying "for the good" of another is deciding in their place what they can bear.
Objects to
- The benevolent lie assumes that I know, better than the other, what is good for them: I judge them too fragile for the truth.
- It denies them the respect owed to a being capable of reason, treating them as a child to be handled rather than an adult to be informed.
- Often, besides, the lie spares first the one who tells it: he spares himself a hard conversation and calls it kindness.
Therefore Under cover of protecting them, the benevolent lie takes from the other what is theirs by right: the truth, and the freedom to judge it.
Possible resolutions of the objection