Truth and lies have been with us since the beginning of time. Who knows how it started, suffice to say, it’s been a problem the same length of time. Biblical times refer to Adam and Eve, but seriously, lies, white lies, and truth are human nature.

Lies come in all flavors. Sometimes used to protect ourselves, to enhance our stories, even to omit stories being used at all.

Error—a lie by mistake. The person believes they are being truthful, but what they are saying is not true.

Omission— leaving out relevant information. Easier and least risky. It doesn’t involve inventing any stories. It is passive deception and less guilt is involved.

Restructuring—distorting the context. Saying something in sarcasm, changing the characters, or altering the scene.

Denial—refusing to acknowledge a truth. The extent of denial can be quite large—they may be lying only to you just this one time or they may be lying to themselves.

Minimization—reducing the effects of a mistake, a fault, or a judgment call.

Exaggeration—representing as greater, better, more experienced, more successful.

Fabrication—deliberately inventing a false story. 

Cognitive Dissonance— Only seeking out information that confirms their existing beliefs. This phenomenon, known as the confirmation bias, affects the ability to think critically about a situation but helps minimize feelings of dissonance.

Do you lie?

Of course you do. We all do from time to time. Sometimes we lie to cover up what is a “need to know” reality. You don’t need to know so I will make something up.

Truth subjects us to a lot of discomfort and consequences, hence we often choose to take the easy way out and pick one of the types of lies above. This justifies in our mind, our reasons for choosing this type of lie. For example we’re all familiar with the Santa Claus / Easter Bunny lies. These teach our children that sometimes lying has good consequences and it makes you feel better to say it’s from Santa or the Easter Bunny rather than bring sadness by saying we can’t afford it but I spent the money anyway. It then turns into joy and masks the discomfort you feel for spending much needed funds on frivolities. It covers up truth and facts to perpetuate the belief world wide, coming from Fabrication type to Confirmation Bias because it does bring a great deal of comfort in spite of the residual feeling that you did something wrong by lying about where the items come from.

Are lies all bad? Not at all. They protect us as well. Like Santa as a child, sometimes we just don’t need or want to know the truth.

Along comes the 2020 Covid-19 year of super lies. We’ve been practicing our internet researching skills and social media foundations for a little over 2 decades now. We think we know how to get around. We’re braver behind our keyboards and often are referred to as ‘keyboard warriors’ where we’re driven to make our own point of view known in spite of little, real, truth to what we may have chosen as subject matter.

Everyone is now subjected to the truth or lie phenomenon from science and leaders to you saying you actually saw what you think you saw. Trusted sources are no longer trusted. Everyone considers themselves an expert and if someone tells them otherwise, a slew of derogatory terms hits the feed. It’s as if a trigger has gone off and everyone forgets they’re talking to real people. Confirmation Bias is the new disease erupting across social media today with internet rage as a byproduct.

‘Research’ is considered what you can find in your google search, ask jeeves, bing search or other search engine of your choosing. Reddit, Yandex, CC Search, Yahoo, SwissCows, DuckDuckGo, StartPage, Search Encrypt, Gibiru, OneSearch, Wiki.com, and so many more. Not just google.

Lie To Me

Reflections of the Soul

You lose trust in people when they constantly exaggerate the stories they tell. This is how you lose faith in other things they say. They may tell the truth most of the time but because you can’t prove it, and they don’t come clean, trust is lost. Having people in positions of leadership who lie and put down thier very own system of government causes loss of trust within countries and often results in civil wars. They can no longer trust the government has their best interests at heart.

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