Never. I never, ever lie. About anything. For any reason. And I certainly wouldn't lie on the Internet, in an anonymous forum. I especially wouldn't lie about lying.
Don't ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone for any reason ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you've been… ever, for any reason whatsoever…
I do a lot of changing the subject or give obtuse answers to avoid lying. If something isn't great, I will focus on the good parts. Like if some food had a bad texture but the taste was good I will mention only the taste instead of just saying it was good or that I enjoyed it, which would be lies.
Not saying everything on my mind isn't lying, and leaving something out or talking about something else when the social expectation is that I would give a 'little white lie' is not lying.
If I did something bad and avoided admitting to it that would be lying by omission. Doesn't come up as I admit it when something like that happens.
More than "never", less than "all the time". I never counted it, so I don't actually know.
I consider lying morally negative (bad). But it isn't such a big negative that can't be somehow justified, in some situations - usually because telling the truth would cause a larger negative.
I consider lying to be on the spectrum of violence. If one can avoid physical violence by telling a lie, then it's justified. However if one is constantly telling white lies in order to avoid causing discomfort to themselves or others then I think there's some room for introspection about your motives and the emotional stability of the people around you.
I consider lying to be on the spectrum of violence.
Could you go further on that? I consider lying and violence apples and oranges, but the idea that they're part of a spectrum is interesting.
About white lies: it's interesting that you mentioned them since it's one of the situations where I actively avoid lying. For me a white lie is a form of belittlement; it's like saying "you aren't a rational human being, but a fragile little piece of junk, that would harm itself with the truth".
If you are lying about this, then that means you only tell the truth. However, if you only tell the truth, that means you can't lie. So you cannot say you only lie on Lemmy comments because that would be a lie and therefore not the truth. So if you are lying ERROR ErROr ErrOR PAroDOx deTECteD!!!!!
I think that most days, I don't lie at all. I actively try to avoid lying; I have a long history of mental health issues, so I used to lie a lot about how I was doing, to avoid worrying people, but that turned out to be counter productive. If someone asks me how I'm doing, a "eh, getting by :/ <shrug>" or similar can be surprisingly informative. I've been getting better at gesturing at my general not coping in a way that's not going to give any more information that is appropriate or necessary. I've found that people actually worry less this way.
The problem I have is figuring out how to tow the line properly between lying and being too unfiltered in your truth and making someone uncomfortable. Because for the most part people aren't looking for your life story when they ask you stuff like this.
Oh yeah, I still struggle with that too, but it's a skill like any other. I'm at least practicing at it now, whereas I wasn't trying before. When I get the balance right, it feels like I can build some rapport with people who are asking how I am on a surface level, without overloading them. It is a tricky balance to strike though.
I wouldn't call anyone in an anonymous place a valid primary source. So maybe I view all of this as a lie?
I think the very concept of truth should be questioned. Human memory is not truthful or accurate in nature. The very act of remembering has been shown to alter one's recollection.
Science is about consensus, collaboration, and time. There are few binary truths and everything is subject to new evidence and revision based on observation.
I view truth like all oversimplifications. It is useful in a fake idealized world, within a lie - if you will, but absolutes are a fallacy in the real world.
If a truth is given as an answer such as a favorite color or song, while lying to one's true self about one's underlying complexity, is the answer a truth or a lie?
Green. Why? Because when I asked someone special why she said green, she had the prettiest smile when she said, "It's the color of life."
"Green" is truthful to who I am by a concept with deep meaning; a truth to your intentions and expectations in asking the question; but a lie in saying I have any color preferences for some narrow frequency band in a spectrum.
I don't think that truth itself is an oversimplification. 2+2=4 | {2, 4} ∈ ℤ remains true regardless of observer or their acknowledgement of that truth. This shows that at least some things are true, and available for knowledge.
However, we humans (plus any other potentially intelligent being) do not have a complete knowledge of truth. It's impossible. And conflating "what I know from the truth" with the truth itself is what I believe to be the oversimplification. (More specifically, conflating subjective and objective matters.)
I would not call anyone in an anonymous place a valid primary source either. However, that does not mean that all descriptive statements coming from those people (us) are lies; it's simply that I don't know if it's true or false, let alone if the person believes on it (false, but not a lie) or not (a lie).
Regarding science, truth could be seen as a "goal" for science; consensus, collaboration and time as the means to reach that goal. (...or at least that's what positivists would say, I think. Popper would instead say that the goal is not to reach the truth, but to get rid of false claims. And Feyerabend would probably agree with you and not me.)
The older I get, the more I think that people primarily lie to themselves, and then tell others that "truth" that they have internalized.
Part of this is that people think in a sloppy manner, but if they were to acknowledge that (to themselves) then it would cause emotional distress. So they... don't. To clarify: I don't even say that fully as a value judgement so much as an observation of human psychology i.e. an instance of the natural world. And yes I include myself in this as well:-).
This paradox means then that these "truth-tellers" are fully literally incapable of telling you the objective Truth, b/c they do not know it themselves - and even if they are aware that they do not know, that part they will not admit for fear of being perceived as weak. (Edit: obviously there is a spectrum here, and different people operate in different modes at different times, e.g. an actor who knows a lot about conveying emotions with their facial expressions might not know anything about physics and vice versa, but neither of them knowing anything about pediatric care, and so on - so even someone who is capable of telling the truth in their chosen area of expertise might not be capable of doing so outside of that sphere, especially if they drink their own cool-aid and allow themselves to forget where the proper demarcating line is - which seems to me to be roughly 100% of all people who ever lived... though I might not be fully capable of telling the truth there?:-P)
Another part is the lies that get passed back and forth so often that they begin to take on a ring of truthiness - this seems to just be an extension of the above, using an external second party rather than happening solely inside of one brain. (This one I *do* levy a value judgement at: just b/c all your "friends" think that a vaccine does not work, does not outweigh the opinions of actual medical professionals - nor do such people even truly believe in this manner themselves, b/c whenever they get sick do they turn to their "friends" or do they suddenly cry out for help from an actual doctor? this is just hypocrisy plain & simple: "hanging out" and "playing around with", like a kid in a playground, is not the same thing as "believing" in the adult world, and when shit finally gets real these people suddenly start adulting, so why not do the adulting at all times, especially when e.g. voting on things that affect millions of other humans?)
This second group could tell the objective Truth - b/c they suddenly do it themselves when they have a personal stake in the matter - but for whatever reason they choose not to, I guess for fear of losing friends.
Either way, it seems unreasonable to expect the truth from someone who does not value that concept themselves - either in their own minds or in their discourse with others. The same with compassion, and patience, and every other aspect of life that can variously be either a virtue or a deficit depending on how much someone has or lacks of it.
When I was 19 I decided that I was going to be honest about everything. I don't know why - I guess it just seemed like the "right" thing to do? I'd literally just say anything that came to mind, unfiltered. I lost several good friends and hurt my family members because of it. After that I realized that you just have to lie about some things, or at least keep silent about how you really feel.
Frivolous stuff and/or pleasantries it tends to happen. Never for anything important or that matters to a reasonable degree. I do tend to choose my words more carefully if I want to answer but don't want to fully speak on something.
I consciously try not to, but still have those stupid random moments where I realize I just pretended to have already understood or known something. It doesn't happen often, but it creeps in here and there. Why do we do that? Is it just some human insecurity thing?
I am trying to survive some tough situations where a bit of deception is required. Sometimes it's just easier to dodge the truth and not cause a screaming match because the details don't really mean anything but will cause a problem because things are so difficult and explosive. I don't go around telling lies, but if it'll help me get through the day in my relationship I'll definitely skew things.
Yea, I'll "lie" for the sake of convenience. I'm never lying for personal gain, but I'll spare the details sometimes because they don't matter in the first place and I'm tired and just wanna go to my bed.
I try not to lie and I do like to keep it as close to 0 as possible, but it does come up situationally.
I really don't lie. Unless it's for safety or a white lie not to hurt someone's feelings, I don't feel the need to stoop to lying.
I accept my faults and I'll admit wrongdoing before I lie. I'm not concerned with what other people think of me, so I speak my truth even if it will drive others away from me. If that happens, they aren't the kind of people I want to associate with anyway.
I value honesty, authenticity, and empathy and hold myself strictly to the standards I've set in my mind and personal philosophy.
I don't lie or say anything on the internet that I wouldn't say in real life. I can't personally comprehend the point or drive to lie on the internet. I'd rather focus effort on self-actualization rather than make-believe.
I have self-reflected on this a few times. They "say" (I say that in quotes because it's one of those "human nature" generalizations) that the average person lies approximately a hundred times a day but doesn't notice. I was confident I don't fit the mold but took a closer look at that just to make sure. If we're talking about things that are strictly lies, none under average circumstances (on the average day, I don't even speak thirty sentences), but many people have had a thing or two to say about me and semantic liberties (could use the golden compass right about now). My lack of a strong social life (not by choice, I'm not good at formulating my end of a chat) or any wealthy, famous, or powerful position probably saves me from lying anywhere near the amount of times the average person lies.
I would dare say that the vast majority of the people on Lemmy are by no means "average". Not necessarily better or worse, but we do have biases: we seem to trend towards older IT professionals who will put up with all the website glitches, as compared to e.g. a normal tween that would not.
Example "average" lie (in my own addled mind): "Gurl puh-lease, you lookin' MIGHTY fine right about now!" (translation: bish please, you look like a dumpster fire wrapped in bacon, insteada puttin on makeup and pounds, you need to be going to the GYM!:-P) Or at least this is my impression based on Twitter and YouTube, though tbf I don't really look at either of them and what posts do make their way onto Lemmy (or Reddit before the collapse) may have been... slightly skewed? :-D
If you count obviously untrue statements for humor purposes, quite a lot actually. If you don't, never really, though I admit to the occasional creative diplomatic truth.
I almost never do but sometimes people need to hear something and the lie is for their benefit rather than mine . Like if someone asks me if they are going to be okay i can't just go full honest and say no your shit fucked so i say yes .
Probably a few times a day, depending on what I'm doing.
I work in a small office, and answer the phones. Most of the time the call needs to be transferred on. Standard operating procedure if someone can't take the call is to say they're "unavailable, can I get them to call you back?" and, if pressed, "on another call at the moment". This is usually untrue - we don't get many calls, so 99% of the time it'll either mean they're in the bathroom, having lunch or just don't want to talk to an overly needy client who keeps calling at the moment.
I'll often also lie about my position if a client questions why I can't handle their call. It's easier to say I'm just the receptionist or something isn't my department, than explain why this either needs to be handled by someone else or would be far cleaner that way.
Oh, and I lie about why I'm putting people on hold all the time. I'm often not bringing up your file or whatever - I did that while we were talking.
That is context dependent on whether society considers you obligsted to tell the truth.
When you break something and asked if you broke it, but deflect to avoid telling the truth, then omitting the truth is a lie. Changing the subject when someone asks about the terrible food they made and the social expectation is that you avoid telling the truth by saying a 'little white lie', then it isn't.
Being silent when questioned the police isn't, becsuse of the expectation of a right to silence. Being silent when asked asked something under oath is, because of the expectation that you tell the truth under oath when asked questions. But if something isn't brought up while under oath, then it isn't because you are not supposed to volunteer things you aren't asked about.
Mostly when playing games that involve lying. I won't lie to my wife and I avoid lying to my children, friends, and coworkers. I sometimes lie to patrons of the restaurant where I work, to provide a simple-but-false answer instead of a complex-but-true one, but never about ingredients or allergies. A good example is if they ask me how I like the shrimp I'll say I'm allergic but they're very popular. I think shrimp are disgusting and don't eat them, but it's true that they are very popular.
It varies mostly on the subject and situation. Outside of with a few people and a few situations I won’t hesitate to lie if it serves my needs more than the truth and I think I can get away with it.
On a daily basis? 99% of the time it is to myself. Now I just thought „I will write a meaningful and a super honest answer for a cool, self-reflection provoking question”. Yet, here we are. Any second now, my comment is almost finished and yet, none of that happens. I almost did it tho! Oh, another one, there, just there..
More seriously, lying mostly just costs too much energy. And more often than not, too much time. At least, this is how I feel about it now. I’ve often heard “fuck, you are really a straight shooter / unapologetically honest, ain’t ya?”. One person will enjoy and like that, someone else would love to (very slowly) burn me for it — both sides have their solid / valid reasons.
The best thing, I would like to get a better grasp on is using the blunt version versus cozy version — I often get it quite right but there is definitely plenty of room for improvement.
I lie a ton, but it's dependent on the audience. There are a lot of people (largely work related) I don't feel like sharing details of my life with so I omit them or simplify them to the point of inaccuracy.
With people I actually know and like I lie very little if at all. It's mostly for convenience and ease.
I was convinced that not lying is the way to go about 4 or 5 years ago and I've pretty much stuck with that ever since. I can only remember telling one lie during that time and even that was more of a reflex and totally unecessary (told to a beggar that I didn't have cash even though I did) This doesn't obviously mean that I always tell everything that's on my mind or that I don't omit information. I try an be diplomatic about it but the rule I try to follow is that I don't say things I know not to be true.
I think you have 2 replies here that went to the wrong place - instead of to the person you likely aimed them at, they are to yourself. I just thought that you might like to know!:-)