Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "little white lies" are a relatively prevalent part of society. And many consider them bad and cowardly. > To pick a mundane example: if somebody asks me "how's it going", I'm almost certainly going to say "good" That is not really white lie, more a phrase / exchange with established meaning, both sided knows the protocol.
Nonchalantly redefining lying just because everyone is vaguely aware the lie exists is silly. You do realize you can just adjust your original absolutist position on lying = indicator of future trustworthiness by just recognizing the nuance of human communication, correct?
It's not a redefinition. Lying requires the purpose of deception. When you ask me how I'm doing as part of a greeting ritual and I say "good" as a response neither of us actually believes we're communicating anything meaningful about our states. In that circumstance it's understood and even expected that the response will be superficial. Indeed, malicious honesty could be entirely impolite. For example if you say "how are you?" and I say "well I was doing really poorly, but then I took a giant crap in the office restroom and now I feel better" and then continue with full and excruciating honesty to describe all the gory details you might not appreciate that oversharing.