What you're talking about is nuance, and there's unfortunately little-to-no room for it in modern discourse largely because of opinions like yours which could be summed up as "if this person doesn't robotically toe the line, then the dumbs will believe things we don't want them believing."

Strategic lying is employed for the "greater good" in the context of this way of thinking frequently, the most egregious example probably being Fauci telling the public not to wear masks because privately the government believed that there wouldn’t be enough protective equipment for health care workers -- they didn't want the dumbs to panic-buy and leave hospitals vulnerable.

Not looking to get into a covid debate, just pointing out that even governments will lie to keep the dumbs from doing something they don't like, and I think that's bad.