What age did you tell your kids there was no Santi Claus?

[Orrex]

139. Again, go on with your bad self

In your smug, patronizing way, you're declaring that you know better than everyone what's best for their children. Sure, you're dressing it up as some noble devotion to honesty, but you're just being a knob.

If a coworker styles your hair in a way that you don't like, and she asks your opinion, do you tell her that her hair looks awful, or do you tailor your response with some basic awareness of her feelings? If you don't, then you're probably a sociopath, and we might as well end this exchange.

But if you embellish or spin your answer in any way, giving anything other than a raw and honest answer, then you're a self-righteous hypocrite, and we might as well end this exchange.

You'll likely protest that this is a faulty analogy or that it's apples and oranges, but truly it's a matter of customizing one's statements to fit the expectations and desires of one's audience. You'll probably assert that doing so is no different from telling any other lie, but that simply demonstrates a failure to understand nuance and context.