We Are Liars, And We Should Stop Pretending We Aren't

[Will_the_lightning]

Everyone Lies

We always lie and no one seems to care. It seems to be an essential part of our everyday lives to lie to anyone and everyone. Especially concerning relationships. More often than not, I'd almost bet that you lie to a significant other or a family member to either appease them or yourself. We don't have to cheat sexually to cheat emotionally.

Maybe you lie about your favorite flavor of ice cream to get that pretty girl that likes black licorice ice cream to like you. Maybe you lie about the kinky things you like in order to avoid pushing your partner away from you. Maybe you lie about your religious convictions, or lack of them, in order to avoid being shunned by your family.

Morally Obligated to Tell the Truth?

The point is, we all lie. We act like we're morally obligated to tell the truth and that honesty's the best policy. I'd be willing to bet that most people don't practice that if that's what they're preaching. The problem is, we live in this web of lies and get surprised and shocked and sometimes even hurt when we find out that other people lie. That's the biggest lie that we can make: lying to ourselves that the people we trust aren't lying to us.

We should all keep in mind how many lies there are, but more importantly, how many we don't know about. The take-away here is that it's really not worth it to sweat it every time you're lied to.

[Anonymous]

Everyone, does indeed lie.

I think there are circumstances, however, in which lies are acceptable, (at least to an extent), and circumstances in which they completely aren't.

If you lie about stupid things, like when you have a commitment to fulfill and you go outside and have fun, then later on say you were sick, that's unacceptable.

And then there are lies you HAVE to tell, even though both you, and the person at the other end are well aware that you're lying. Kind of like, when someone asks you, 'are you okay?' and both you and the other person know you're not, but you smile anyway, and say, 'yes, I'm fine.' It's almost like an understanding between the two of you, kind of like, 'I know I'm lying, and you know I'm lying, but we both know I won't tell you the truth because it's personal, and even if I do, you'll be thinking why on earth is this person telling me something that is not really my problem?'

And then there's a third type of lie, that you have to tell, based on circumstances. Sometimes telling the truth would have ripple effects, and it's just so much easier, and less complicated to tell a lie. In this situation too, someone may assume you are lying, but if they judge you for it, it'd be their mistake, because they need to understand the circumstance in which you are doing so. Kind of like, when you are fired from your job, instead of explicitly saying that, you say you decided to join a new company, or something. Unless they are personally invested in you, a family member, or in a relationship with you, you are not doing them any harm by lying.

The only lies that I hold against people, are when their lies have significantly altered another person's life, or if they lie to present a 'perfect image' to others, or if they lie about stupid things, because they don't want to accept responsbility for their actions.

Otherwise, I look at them and think, you're spinning a web, don't be surprised if you get caught in it someday.

[jsthe13th]

1) everyone lies (if not big lies, white lies)
2) everyone wants to be right
3) in an argument, everyone wants the last word (which is why most arguments go on for so long)
4) everyone is a hypocrite from time to time
5) everyone contradicts themselves from time to time

just a few things I've learned about people and myself

[EyeSeaYew]

I think that every (or at least most) human beings are aware of the fact that EVERYONE has told or tells some sort of lie at some point or another. Doesn't matter how small or "insignificant" of a lie it was, a lie is a lie.

Usually when people use the word "liar", though, they're using it to describe a person who is regularly dishonest. From that standpoint not everyone is liar as not everyone is regularly dishonest.

There really are honest people out here. An honest person is predominantly free of deceit and sincere. A honest person likely wouldn't lie about their favorite flavor of ice cream to impress somebody, or lie about personal things to save face/keep a good reputation. A honest person, for the most part, tells the truth. While that doesn't mean an honest person NEVER has lied/lies, 99% of the time they're being sincere and so you can trust what they say.

[Will_the_lightning]

Are you certain of that? Because my point was that we lie about a lot of things, even really really small things.

[EyeSeaYew]

I think how often one lies (including very small lies) depends on other personality traits. A very outspoken person is much less likely to lie about small things because he/she has no reservations about expressing oneself. Whereas a very tactful person may be more inclined to lie about small things because he/she is sensitive/careful when it comes to avoiding offending others.

[AvaMarina]

I downvoted you by accident, sorry! I didn't mean to, I actually like your opinion. D:

[VanillaSalt]

i think lying sucks... you can't trust anyone because there's so many liers... that being said people CANNOT HANDLE THE TRUTH! that is the truth... when a woman asks if them pants make her butt look big if you say yes she will be mad and prob start fighting... i could list numerous examples but im 2 lazy for that right now

[ImagineRelease]

Pretending we're not liars would be a lie.

Actually the sign of higher intelligence is the ability to lie. :) One of, but to use deception as a way to augment recourse of a future event is a remarkable quality.

[JackKerouac77]

I remember seeing a Discovery channel episode once about how we learn to lie as children and accept it as part of our modern culture.

In a lot of Native American cultures, lying was not tolerated/accepted. Interesting dichotomy.

[slick_chick]

lying is part of living. if people don;t lie, probably, many would lose jobs, relationships will fail, and murder will be an ordinary crime. LOL

[Anonymous]

Very few people lie and those are special circumstances of course. Some people are malicious at hear thus their lies are more obvious and or hurtful.
"For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, clean, and wrong." --H. L. Mencken

[lovebae55]

Game. Set. Match. However, your logic is flawed.

[Will_the_lightning]

Something tells me you don't know what logic actually is.

[lovebae55]

It is taking a lot of control not to put your ass in check, however, if i insult you, I'm afraid you won't understand... oh well.

[Will_the_lightning]

No, that has nothing to do with logic. You haven't insulted me, but here, check this out, it's a free resource that allows you to take Stanford University's logic course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/intrologic

[hulamalula]

How is his logic flawed? Everyone DOES lie, in fact it's human nature.
Nice choice of advanced phrases, but unfortunately they don't fit the context of this post.

[CaptCrisp]

She's right lol. Humans lie 3 times a minute while in conversation... Most of it isn't intentional... It just that humans have something called imagination, there are things called hyperbole in languages... We're not robots.

[NateInAk]

I always lie. Mwahahahaha!