Unlike innocuous or even white lies, harmful lies—such as defamation, manipulation, or scams—cause damage, which can sometimes be very significant.

DEFAMATION

This consists of telling falsehoods or half-truths to damage someone’s reputation and can be directed against:

• A specific person, whether an individual or a legal entity.

• A category of people, such as sexually free women, homosexuals, racial or ethnic groups, etc., malevolently transmitting false negative messages about them.

Read LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM!: Not to sexually free women either

Read LIVE WITHOUT HARMING: Not even the LGBTQ+ community

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let us be aware of the damage caused by racism, ethnicism, and nationalism

Sometimes defamers are very subtle, dropping small comments here and there. Occasionally they do so in such a casual, veiled, and devious manner that they do not clearly reveal their bad intentions. They may even turn the tables and present themselves as false victims of the outraged innocent party to garner pity and generate anger and rejection against them. They carry out their misdeed in a camouflaged and skillful way, like someone discreetly sprinkling almost imperceptible powder into food, which although appearing to be simple spices, turns out to be arsenic.

Because it is like a fine rain that, through repetition, gradually soaks in. As Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, said: “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes a truth.” And, what is worse, it predisposes people against the innocent victim. It can lead those who are deceived to anything from distancing themselves from the victim to ostracism, discrimination, and verbal, psychological, or physical aggression, or even murder.

This is what happened with the Jews. In the Middle Ages, there were Catholic priests who spread lies such as that they kidnapped Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. During the time of the Black Death, which decimated the European population, they claimed that the Hebrews were to blame because they malevolently contaminated the wells.

It was a vulgar falsehood, as the cause of the bubonic plague was actually a virus that rats brought from Asia via merchant ships. Those small seeds of defamation, those simple little words, were spread and grew into large, malignant plants that bore the fruit of hatred toward Jews for centuries and numerous massacres of innocent people.

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us not be anti-Semitic

Honorability is something highly valued by most people, and its loss is usually painful. And, what is worse, its destruction through defamation is the basis for objectification and labels that serve as a blank check to degrade and abuse.

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us not objectify

Read THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us avoid labels that are a blank check to cause harm

Let us see if we can make this concept clear to everyone: THE HONOR AND DIGNITY OF OTHERS ARE SACRED!, unless they have caused some harm that was not in self-defense. Therefore, let us not unfairly devalue others. If someone unjustifiably attacks the honor of another, let us stop them in their tracks.

Read LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM!: Let us respect others

“Great minds discuss ideas.

Average minds discuss events.

Small minds discuss people.”

MANIPULATION

This consists of distorting and misrepresenting reality to influence the behavior of others for our own benefit. Manipulators often take advantage of their victims’ weaknesses, especially profiting from sensitive and kind people. They attempt to dominate others and sometimes resort to undermining self-esteem and other types of psychological abuse.

A subcategory includes narratives that justify abuse. Read more in…

LET US LOVE THE TRUTH!: Let us dismantle the narratives that justify cruelty

Read LET US NOT STEAL!: Let us dismantle the narratives that justify theft

OTHER TOXIC LIES

Other types of malicious deception include scams, trickery, schemes, machinations, intrigues, entanglements, shady dealings, or rackets to benefit ourselves at the expense of harming others.

There are also the false excuses given by someone when they have breached an agreement instead of taking responsibility and repairing the breach. Or cases where a hotel receptionist tells a potential guest that there are no rooms left, even though there are, to avoid extra work. Or if a wretched person has done something wrong and unfairly blames another, attempting to put them in the crosshairs instead.

Let us avoid all these types of meanness and be noble. Let us instill in children and adolescents, in families and schools, the values of honesty and kindness, avoiding both lies and corrosive half-truths. And let us remember what Socrates said: “The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”

Read LIVE WITHOUT HARMING: Let’s be honest

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let us be good people

Thank you for sharing to achieve a world with less vileness and more integrity.