Jackk > unless it’s an argument in politics, I would never do it.
I admire your admission. To paraphrase Berdichever: look how kodesh your children are, Eibishte – they’ll admit anything in order not to lie. Except this is ot working in the case of admitting to lying.
There is a little red book “Lying for truth” by (at that time) young unknown author that I appreciated and used to leave in shuls and lots of people would grab it in order to find some kulos, I guess, but then put it back disappointed… After listing possible kulos from Gemora, the book ends with a caveat from Besht: you can’t use these kulos if you have ever said impermissible lie.
This fun discussion raises a serious issue of current assimilation in general culture. We used to be afraid of avoda zora, then of olympic games, then of churches, then of universities and lack of tzniyut, but we are now assimilating discourse values from media and making this approach to truth acceptable. People who think that they can bend the truth in some issues but not in others are deluding themselves. Soon, you’ll be talking about Torah same way and soon we will not be able to read books about gedolim 100 years ago and not know what is truth or not (see another thread).