I had the thought today that I lie to SOMEBODY pretty much everyday for some reason, and if I said I only lied once a day on average, I’d be lying to you.
Often it’s something all parties know is a lie, because, really how else do you reply without seeming belligerent.
Sometimes I lie to make life a little easier for somebody else.
Once in a while I lie because someone wants me to do stuff I think is pointless bullshit, and I figure if I put it off enough, it will go away.
I generally don’t lie to protect myself against having fucked up. and so I like to think of myself as an honest man. But when I really think about it, I’m lying to myself.
Many days go by when I don’t lie at all. Really.
Some other days…Well, I follow much the same criteria that you laid out. There is such a thing as a harmless lie and sometimes you have to tell them just to get people off your back or to avoid a worse situation, a waste of time, or a needless hassle.
I will admit that when I filled out unemployment claim forms, I occasionally had to say “yes, I looked for work every single day of the past week” even when I hadn’t–because I don’t see why people should be penalized for it if they were too ill to look for work on a particular day. (If you were ill, at a funeral, out of town, etc., they most likely would not pay for that day.) I will reiterate that this was a rare occurrence.
Does being sarcastic count? If it does, I lie everyday, almost constantly.
I like to keep people happy, but I don’t like to lie. I’ll tactfully aviod the truth.A lot of times I’ll tell people what they want to hear (unless I know that it will turn out badly by doing so). I try to be as truthful as possible, but it doesn’t always work. I’ve even lied before without realizing it… usually only because I’ve forgotten an important piece of information or I’m just confused and don’t even know it. Sometimes I just shouldn’t open my mouth.
I lie to avoid conflict. Otherwise, I’m pretty honest, especially about myself.
I lie very rarely. But I will rephrase things to be polite.
Example
Friend in a hideous new dress: What do you think of this dress?
Me (thinking Ugh): It’s a very interesting style.
Also, when it comes to matters of love. I’m always aware of the possibility of “scaring off” men. So I’ll hide my feelings until they’ve spilled their guts first. And probably way too much after they 'spill their guts" as well.
If someone wants an opinion on something that I KNOW I disagree wtih them, I will simply refuse to engage in such a concersation. Not rudely, I’ll just say “sorry, I don’t dscuss X because I know we have differing opinions”.
Back when I worked at a company where I had the troll bitch from hell as a supervisor, I took quite a few “mental health days”.
That’s about it.
I work in advertising. 'nuff said.
Well, ok, some more: we work as subcontractors to a lot of different agencies, many of whom are direct competitors with one another, so there’s lying going on to ensure that they don’t know about each other.
And just today, I chose not to walk over the top of a meeting room table, grab the useless shitstain of a client sitting on the other side, call him a waste of skin whose brains would be better put to use splattered across the gutter, and proceed to stomp the life out of him. So I’ll just chalk that up as a ‘lie to make life easier for somebody else’.
I rarely lie, and then it’s mostly to avoid conflict or cover my own ass. I work with asupervisor who makes a big deal over my very smallest mistake, and a cow-orker who will lie if it makes me look bad. Between the two, it’s hell on wheels some days. Cow-orker was once caught in a total bold face lie about me that absolutely nobody would believe, and then complained when I was telling people what she said. Her belief seems to be “It’s okay for me to lie about you, but I don’t want you telling the truth about me.”
I lie more than I am comfortable with.
I have even lied here! It was the old “my friend has a problem”. But I wanted to ask a question and get an answer without having to go off on a tangent. I felt I might be asked to do a lot of explaining and give a lot of details that no one really wants to hear anyway. I did it to spare you guys!
I do try to avoid lying. First I will attempt to avoid the problem, then I attempt to deceive, then I lie as a last resort.
And I suck at it! Sometimes, when I feel someone has backed me into a corner, I’m tempted to put my hand on their arm and say, “Hey. I’m going to tell you whatever you want to hear in order to get my way. You’re going to pretend to believe it to avoid an awkwardness, and do what I want you to do. So can we just skip ahead to the part where you do it my way?”
I don’t feel too bad about it. I really think I am a good person making carefully considered choices, and if I lie sometimes to grease the skids, well, I’m sorry.
Ha, not really. 