A (slight?) defense of Steve not telling Tony about Bucky

First, let’s look at the really, really shitty position Steve was in: Steve finds out, from an evil computer version of his evil WWII enemy he assumed was dead, that his best friend (that he just found out is not only totally not dead, but was tortured into this mindless super killer) murdered his friend and his wife, who were the parents of his other friend. How would you even begin to....? And as far as I am aware, Tony thought his parents died in a tragic accident. An accident that clearly traumatized him for life. What would it have served to tell him that they were actually brutally murdered by his dad’s brainwashed assassin former brother-in-arms/friend? Would this knowledge have benefited him in some way? You can totally argue that this isn’t Steve’s call to make and he should have trusted that Tony was strong enough to handle the truth, which is totally fair, but people often lie to spare someone unnecessary pain. The truth doesn’t always set you free. Honesty isn’t always the best policy. And as for Natasha, she’s a former assassin herself. She wouldn’t tell Tony about what Bucky did because she wouldn’t want someone to tell one of her victim’s/marks family members what she did. And again, if the death was made to look like an accident...it might be more humane to let the loved ones go on thinking that. I’m thinking about how in The Bodyguard Frank never tells Rachel that her sister hired the hit man to kill her. Her sister was dead. Rachel was already in deep mourning over her death. To hear that her own sister wanted her dead would have destroyed her. Natasha also tries to protect her friends. When she gives Steve Bucky’s Hydra file, she warns him before handing it over that he “might not want to pull on that thread.” Yes, Steve admitted in the letter to Tony that his motives were somewhat selfish, but I honestly believe that he genuinely thought he was sparing Tony as well. The path to hell and all that....