[jsprogrammer]

I'm not sure the people in the story were trusted by Scooter; it seems he had no real choice but to interact with them in rather banal ways. They seemed to regularly deceive or outright lie to him on at least several occasions throughout the story.

[falcolas]

> They seemed to regularly deceive or outright lie to him

This would matter more if this wasn't how society runs in general. White (and not so white) lies are the lubrication of social interaction: when a random someone asks how your day is going, they don't really want to know. They want to hear something positive or perhaps a mildly amusing quip. Anything else and the social interaction breaks down uncomfortable silence.

Took me awhile to learn that one.

Scooter may have ended up interacting with society better, or worse, had he always been told the truth, but human interactions are never so clean. I have trouble faulting the narrator of this story for being human in such a difficult and uncomfortable situation.

[Retric]

I often hear this take, but I think it's overly simplified. It’s completely acceptable to respond in a negative fashion to ‘how was your day’. People just don’t want details.

So, “Stressful” or “Annoying” is fine. But “I had this one customer who…” is not.

The only real lie is optional and it's mostly about how you want people to think of you. If 10% of the time you’re slightly unhappy that's considered reasonable, but if your unhappy 90% of the time people don't generally want to be around you.

[jsprogrammer]

I didn't lay any fault, only facts.

I'm not sure what it matters what society does in general, Scooter is not interacting with all of society, but rather the people in his immediate location.

Furthermore, you're talking as if these are all foregone conclusions but that is not the case. We are alive now, have agency, and can make changes as we see fit.