@mattlehrer there is always some difference between a (hypothetical) perfectly neutral truth-seeking exercise and the social processes that engender authority. some of those differences may be corrupt, self-dealing, harmful. others may be necessary and useful to productive coordination. but authority requires we (nearly) all behave “as if” a thing is true, and that becomes hard to maintain the more frequent and clear evidence that would contradict it seems to emerge.

@mattlehrer “intent” is a trickier question (in a sense a fabrication). does it make liars any better (in an ethical rather than theatrical sense) if they mislead themselves first? i think a relatively small share of the corrupt, harmful, self-dealing kinds of authority involve people “intending to deceive”. at an individual level (as Upton Sinclair famously pointed out) our own truth-finding processes are not independent of interest.