system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Invention of Lying] Why were the denizens of the movie universe not only unable to lie or spot a lie, but unable to reason that a person with intentionally wrong information (lying) could just be sincerely mistaken? How could this society function?

In the movie, nobody is able to lie. They all just state things they mean as bluntly as possible. Then the main character has some kind of brain evolution, and is suddenly able to lie. Not only that, even when he tells people he's lying or says ridiculous things that can't be true, they don't know he's lying.

Why does it never occur to these people that he's being sincere, but is just wrong? There's this pretty shady scene where he begins to persuade a woman that unless they have sex, the world will come to an end. She takes him seriously but doesn't go through with it. An intelligent person can see that's ridiculous. Why can't she believe that he's at least mistaken?

What does it say about the movie universe that this is the way they confront people with information contradictory to their own? Have they never encountered a situation where they've had different information in their head than someone else, and seen they were wrong? There seems to be two options to me: 1) Everyone is stupid and will believe everything everyone else says, even if they're wrong, or 2) Everyone is literally incapable of knowing or speaking incorrect information, and they all actually have limited omniscience (everything they believe is correct). But it can't be number two, because of the main character's lies, at least after he learns to lie. But how can a society work where everyone will believe everything everybody says?

Here's a piece of data from the movie: A guy is talking to the main character before he learns to lie, and recounting how another character said behind main character's back that he is "an obese homosexual". The character he was talking about corrects him and says she said he's a "fat (derogatory f-word for homosexual)". So it looks like people can see wrong information spoken by another, and correct them with information they believe to be correct.

What is this madness?!?
gpt
2 is closer to the truth.  Note the crazy man we see with a sign on the street.  His signs don't say anything like "the end is nigh" they say "why are we wearing pants?"  Now clearly, they have at least *some* ability to sugar coat things, such as the obeme homosexual vs fat faggot scenario.  We likewise in the pepsi commercial see someone take a sip and say "it's a bit too sweet" with a look of disgust on his face.