People are good liars, I won't dispute that. But that's no reason not to give people a chance. The ones who are lying can't keep it up forever. It'll become obvious who you can trust and who you can't, but you have to give people the chance. You have to, at least, at first, give them the opportunity to treat you like a decent person.

It's not always like that, though. It's not always zero-sum. You're the one inflicting the damage - you're the one at fault, doing something wrong, taking advantage of someone. Nobody will trust you if you do those things. They're more likely to take it out on you.

Like, I don't know. Robespierre. He was executed by his own committee. All the pain and suffering he inflicted came right back at him.