Comment by Marina on Radical Honesty · 2007-09-10T15:31:37.000Z · LW · GW

Blanton doesn't support honesty 100% of the time -- he actively encourages lying to government officials (admitting to taking unwarranted deductions on his tax returns) and says it's fine to tell the Nazis no one's home when Anne Frank is hiding in your attic. In that vein, I'd guess it would be acceptable to keep a secret, but it would be up to the individual's judgment whether that secret was "worth" keeping. If said secret were originally mine, I would seriously hesitate to share with such an "honest" person for fear they would decide at some inopportune moment to "free" me of the burden of my secret and share it at a dinner party.

I see a very large distinction between an outright lie and simply not saying something at all, a line which Blanton seems to blur significantly (if not erase outright). Many times, saying exactly what we're thinking or feeling at the moment without taking the time to think it through can have disastrous effects when, five minutes later, you realize you really feel completely different but now cannot get your listener to believe your radical shift in honesty.