The author faces a situation where telling the truth causes suffering.
The identity of his situation with that of a person who enjoys lying is premised upon pleasure being nothing more than the absence of suffering.
This reduces the enjoyment of a person who enjoys lying to an absence of suffering. Belief systems which might take this approach to pleasure tend to treat trying to avoid suffering as suffering - i.e. all the way down, turtles suffer.
The identity of his situation with that of a person who enjoys lying is premised upon pleasure being nothing more than the absence of suffering.
This reduces the enjoyment of a person who enjoys lying to an absence of suffering. Belief systems which might take this approach to pleasure tend to treat trying to avoid suffering as suffering - i.e. all the way down, turtles suffer.