I tend not to see the US government as a vast monolithic conspiracy bent on misleading its population. I think sometimes the government and our interests are the same and sometimes they are not. and sometimes when they are not the government feels it can get away with lying if it needs to - sometimes it cant do much lying even if it would like to. so I think abou the circumstances just as I would if I were dealing a person. Sometimes trusting and sometimes wary - depending.