David Johnson wrote:

> That doesn't seem like a reasonable assumption to me. The reason
> various characters -- Conn's, Travis's, Shanlee's -- lies are
> effective, at least for a time, is because other characters don't
> expect them to be lying. That wouldn't be the case if the Federation
> had a "culture of lying."
>
> Rather, the lying was an aspect of the story Beam was telling, not a
> characterization of late Federation society more generally.

Quoting you:

all of the principal characters were lying, extensively,
elaborately and profoundly

How does one achieve that level of achievement without extensive
practice?