liar moments

Theodore Dalrymple:

"In my study of communist societies,
I came to the conclusion
that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade,
or convince,
nor to inform,
but to humiliate;
and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
When people are focused to remain silent when they are told the most obvious lies,
or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves,
they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
(Probity: the quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency)
To assent to the obvious lies is to cooperate with evil,
and in some small way to become evil oneself.
A person’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded,
and even destroyed.
A society of emasculated liars is easy to control."