You're Such A Liar

[Faiien]

Well lets just say lately I've been having some internal struggles about some problems. I was asking myself is there any right time to lie? I've always heard that lying can be wrong or right according to the situation but then there's also the the snowball theory where one little snowball rolls down a hill and eventually causes an avalanch. So what are your opinions on lying? Is there ever a right time to lie? Should you try to be as honest as possible? Is lying a part of being human?

[DarkMirror]

Bah. I dislike being dishonest, but i do lie.

And its 'Liar' not 'Lier'.

[Faiien]

It happens to the best of us I' am afraid XD.

[SilverCrusader]

I almost never lie. If I do I usually feel so bad about myself that I admit it right away. I recommend not lying.

[Magmaniac]

I recently had an argument about this with a friend.
He said that lying sometimes is okay if it is for good intentions, for a good outcome, etc. I disagree and think that even if intentions and whatever are good it is better to tell the truth in any situation. I'm not saying I've never lied, but I try to be honest at least 99% of the time.

[own3d0406]

I lied to my friend about something so wouldn't have to hurt his feelings and make him emo, so I was lying to him with good intentions. But then he figured out that I was lying and he got mad :(

lying is bad, the end

[TheDriver]

Yes, in the right situation.
I mean like if your best friend has a gun and says "im ugly ima shoot myself" and she isn't attractive to you, you still are probably going to lie and say she is pretty. I mean we all do it, and yes you should try to lie as little as possible. Unless your in the government. Feel free to include a lie in every other sentence. And remember this: You have to lie to learn not to lie.

[Vhaeraun]

Half truths are lies. Omitting details are lies. Everyone is guilty of these, even if they choose to deny it.

[TheDriver]

I fail to see how omitting details is lying, unless someone acts you to explain further and you say "there isn't anything more."

[mranderson]

A lie (also called prevarication) is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement with the intention to deceive, often with the further intention to maintain a secret or reputation, protect someone's feelings or to avoid a punishment. To lie is to state something one believes is false with the intention that it be taken for the truth by someone else.- Wiki

There is never a right time to lie, but sometimes there are times you should lie even though it is not right. Good luck figuring this out, because I haven't figured it out yet. Each person is different and learns this at a different pace. The snowball effect is an analogy used by various people for various reasons, and can really be applied to anything. And yes, lying is part of being human, but so is deciding what to do.

And omitting details is lying because you are not telling the truth. If someone asks if they are ugly, you can say "No" and leave out the part where you say ..."No, you are butt ugly, not just ugly." Or, "No, but you are not hot either." And usually you never use just a yes or a no to satisfy someone's answer so generally you fill it in with something else. Which would be false information, or abstract information.

In Driver's sentence, telling her she is not ugly will not matter. She is at the point of killing herself, and is begging for attention. If you say no, and she really thinks she is ugly, than she will kill herself because she thinks she is ugly, and kill you for lying to her. If you say yes, she will kill herself and you for insulting her. But by asking for your opinion if she is ugly she really doesn't want your opinion, and is lying to you and herself by asking you a question for your opinion. Good luck with this one.

[Spartan-II]

I try to be honest as much as possible. At times i'm brutally honest, and i'm trying to be like that more. :D

Most of the lies i'm guilty of have been lies of omission, if that changes anything.

[Giggilyomeromicon]

I like all the time, but never about anything important.

[TheOutcast]

Lying has got me into lots of trouble. Try not to lie. ;)

[Skullflower]

I lie sometimes, but i really dont give a fuck about it.

[Magmaniac]

I think purposefully hiding information is just as bad as lying.

As a result I am a very blunt and honest person most of the time.

[Aqo]

It's only okay to lie whenever the person you're lying to isn't going to find out about it. This determines when I lie and when I don't, it works well and no one gets hurt.

That said, I try to be as honest as possible, because I'm a crappy liar.

[DoctorZettabyte]

I try not to lie when I can help it. I do, however, omit details in the truth on occasion.
While not directly lying, it covers your ass sometimes and works just as well, if you play you cards right.

Haha, cards.

-DocZetta

[SilverCrusader]

I like all the time, but never about anything important.
I like all the time too.

Lying is distorting, omitting, or completely changing the truth. There is no such thing as a white lie. Lying is lying, regardless of the situation or justification.

[ArrlanthBloodAR]

I'm too caring or too friendly to lie. I'll lie if it would too save my butt, and that's about it.

[VigilanteV]

lieing is natural IMO. The world would a mess with out them, and I would have a lot less fun manipulating people to my advantage.

I lie about a lot of stuff, even if I don't need to do. I just like the feeling of knowing something is false and feeding it to people like spoon of bull shit and watch them eat it up like it was candy.

I should go into media or something like that....

[anderoo]

Sometimes I lie.
But I try to avoid it.
Doesn't everyone?

[Ktan]

I'm very bad at lying, not only because of my tells, but also because I simply have no truck with any abuse of trust at all. I'll only lie if I really need to save my own ass and that's a very rare situation indeed.

I'm also aware that 'omitting the truth' is considered lying by many. I've had it happen to myself alot in the past, and it's something I also despise. I actually have a couple of friends (who are rapidly losing that status =p) who are compulsive liars or never tell the full story, and I see that as abuse of trust, and rather insulting.

To that end, I always strive to tell every side of the story I know, even sides that would act against me. However, I hardly do this solely for altruistic reasons; I do it because I have a reputation for being an honest person and, as such, sometime to maintain said reputation, my pride as an honest person overrides other elements of my personal pride. I also understand the damage a misplaced lie can do to trust between two people, and trust is something paramount to me.

Sometimes, I will put 'spins' on certain sides, but not so much in misinfomration, as giving my opinion on the matter. Say, for example, one of my friends cheats. Unusually, in such a situation, while telling the facts I might detail the extenuating circumstances to generate some sympathy, but I will quite openly acknowledge that I am playing Devil's Advocate.

Sometimes I infact even put a pessimistic spin on my side of the story, or one that could emphasise something detrimental to my own story. Of course, there is an element of deviousness to this; by showing that I am willing to put my self or my own "side" down, I am conceding; this is in a ploy to show people how honest I am being and how far I am willing to go. However, there is a difference for me in my personal definition between spin and lying. Lying is intentionally decieving via misinformation. When I talk about spin, I'm talking about making the best (or worst!) of a bad situation. There is no mutation of facts, merely the addition of an opinion and additional information that is indirectly pertinent to the scenario.

I'm a pioneer in the art of Machiavellian honesty, I suppose :P

The only time I tend to hide info is if it's highly private or if I'm trying not to be incredibly rude about someone. Of course, I wouldn't say that that's lying if I don't tell someone right off the bat I hate them, because if they were to ask then I would explain why I am so frosty, and I'm also an advocate of the idea "If you have nothing nice to say..." On one occasion, when asked, despite the fact I knew I was really going to hurt her feelings, and friend asked me if anything was up and I said that at the first oportune moment I was going to quite frankly tell her my problem. Needless to say, it wasn't taken well, but more importantly the air was cleared.

It's quite amusing, because I'm notorious for being unable to play the card game 'Cheat'. I actually find it nearly impossible to bring myself to cheat in a game where that is the precise purpose. There is only one method I will "cheat" via, and that's purely because it takes immense skill to pull it off (the method being putting down more cards that I actually declared. It's bloody hard to get right, but you feel like a magician when you do it right.)

[3Vee]

I tend not to lie, right out. On the other hand, I'm something of at least a wannabe artist in the realm of Not Answering the Question, Sidetracking, Partial Information, and Not Saying Anything.

For some reason, though, I have a reputation as being reliable, so maybe I'm not actually keeping as much back as it seems like I am. I don't like deception, so even the littlest bit of misinformation seems like a big worry to me.

Also, I'm not a bad poker player.

[GenocideAlive]

I lie all the motherfucking time, and I'm honest about things I shouldn't be honest about. Go figure. I'll lie to cover my ass, I'll lie to avoid dealing with discomfort, I'll lie to save myself five minutes. In the end, it's usually a matter of whether or not I feel justified in doing so, and yes the ends justify the means in 99% of cases.

If something broke and I don't feel it should have broken via my treatment, I'll return it and say it was broken when I bought it. If my boss starts babbling, I'll probably agree even when she starts going off on racist tangents. When I say I've been cleaning all day, usually it's half a day and playing games / fucking off the other half; I get a day's worth of cleaning done, but I don't feel I should be punished for efficiency. Why tell the truth in those circumstances?

I probably should lie and say I don't lie, but again I'm honest about shit I should'nt be honest about. We already covered that.

[Magmaniac]

In contrast to what I previously said, it's always OK to lie to the police. Which is something I have grown good at.

[anderoo]

haha
GA justifies (kinda) lying on a regular basis, thus relieving everyone of the need to lie about how often they lie.
Mag comes back from his community service, reads GA's post, shares more insight.
You two are my favourite people at warboards.
4srs lulz

[DarthPaul]

When I was younger I lied about everything. I can`t remember it much, but my mom told me that I pretended to be deaf for a few months just so I could get a hearing aid. The Doctor said to her I was either lying or had something seriously wrong with my brain.

Turns out I was just lying.

[DarkMirror]

You pretended to be deaf for a few months? Wow. Thats pretty cool, actually.

[DarthPaul]

There may have been something wrong with my brain. :P

[DarkMirror]

You're fucking epic, man.

[Skullflower]

Sometimes I lie.
But I try to avoid it.
Doesn't everyone?

Nope.

[GenocideAlive]

When I was younger I lied about everything. I can`t remember it much, but my mom told me that I pretended to be deaf for a few months just so I could get a hearing aid. The Doctor said to her I was either lying or had something seriously wrong with my brain.

Turns out I was just lying.
Good story. I wish I had something comparable to share, but I think my sister needed hearing aids when we were kids. And plus, lying meant bruises and limping at school the next week. Not that it stopped me.

[3Vee]

Especially given GA's point of view, I think this is a good time to introduce the following diagram:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/IlianDemon/ProblemSolving.jpg

Especially note the step "Can you blame somebody else?"

[Nephi]

I try to lie whenever the opportunity presents itself that way it keeps people on their toes when you actually tell the truth.

[Fiendwurm]

Everything I say is a lie.:D


Ha ha, paradox.

[Spartan-II]

In contrast to what I previously said, it's always OK to lie to the police. Which is something I have grown good at.
You sit on a throne of lies.

I know a few compulsive liars. I thoroughly enjoy trapping them in their own lies and then watching them squirm when I catch them. Few things are more pleasurable.

[DoctorZettabyte]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/desktops/cube_cake_full.jpg

And you people call yourselves gamers.

-DocZetta

[Spartan-II]

But it wasn't a lie...

[Neo]

Those of you claiming you don't lie as so full of it.

You lie everyday, whether you realize you're doing it or not.

Everyone lies, it's human nature.

I'd say it depends on how or when you lie that is the real issue, and just like everything else there is no clear black and white "OMFG YOU LIED? THATS ALWAYS WRONG NO MATTER WHAT" -- sort of line. Seriously, life is greys, join us.

You wouldn't lie to a friend who's feeling down, usually your impulse would be to try to cheer them up. If you don't, then you're just an ass. You would tell your friend he's an idiot even though he messed up big time. Stuff like that.

I'm with GA though. While I do try to be honest a lot of the time, I often weigh the consequences of the truth first. If blurting out the truth is going to cause more trouble for me, then I refrain from doing so. For instance, someone asked what's up just now. Do I really want to explain to them "what's up" and that I'm thinking about a great many things and have been feeling sort of down? No. I just say "fine" because I don't feel like sharing.

Besides, I don't know many people who would be completely truthful with relatives to be honest. I'm irritated with my grandparents over a few things, but I don't think I'd ever confront them about, even if asked.

Little white lies, imo, or not only OK, but are required.

Honesty is overrated.

-Neo

[DarthPaul]

Especially given GA's point of view, I think this is a good time to introduce the following diagram:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/IlianDemon/ProblemSolving.jpg

Especially note the step "Can you blame somebody else?"

Dude! I have that on a shirt!

Well, slightly different. "You poor Idiot" would be "You poor Bastard".