Yeah, same. I mean, a lot of society only runs because we take it as a given that most people aren't blatantly lying to us. For me, at least, there's a sort of, "this can't actually be happening, you can't be lying THAT BLATANTLY can you???" that slows me down, even if it's obvious. For some reason, it just seems more... more reasonable to mislead than to outright lie! (Which is kind of weird, when I think about it.)
For me at least, I feel like misleading is easier to understand. It's harder to get caught, it still sorta kinda could be interpreted to be true, and thus it just seems a safer gambit. (If caught, the misleader can always claim misunderstanding or misinterpretation.) Flat-out lying, though, I think maybe it happens for different reasons, sometimes totally unrelated to trying to be believed. I've known folks who said whoppers that could easily, immediately be disproven, and yet they still couldn't seem to help themselves. I STILL find myself mulling it over, trying to answer the question, "why????" The answers seem weirder, more unbelievable, STRANGE. (For example, the best guesses I have are, "because they are trying to actively tamper with someone's perception of reality," "because they actively take pleasure in getting people to believe obviously untrue things," and other things that just seem so... so WEIRD.)
I understand why people mislead others. But baldfaced lying... you know, I'm still not sure I understand why people do that. (I mean, there's always, "people are dumb," but the folks I know who pulled that were not dumb. They were smart people! Which makes it even weirder, because it feels like if they'd been misleading, they would've gotten away with it!)
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Date: 2019-06-27 11:07 pm (UTC)For me at least, I feel like misleading is easier to understand. It's harder to get caught, it still sorta kinda could be interpreted to be true, and thus it just seems a safer gambit. (If caught, the misleader can always claim misunderstanding or misinterpretation.) Flat-out lying, though, I think maybe it happens for different reasons, sometimes totally unrelated to trying to be believed. I've known folks who said whoppers that could easily, immediately be disproven, and yet they still couldn't seem to help themselves. I STILL find myself mulling it over, trying to answer the question, "why????" The answers seem weirder, more unbelievable, STRANGE. (For example, the best guesses I have are, "because they are trying to actively tamper with someone's perception of reality," "because they actively take pleasure in getting people to believe obviously untrue things," and other things that just seem so... so WEIRD.)
I understand why people mislead others. But baldfaced lying... you know, I'm still not sure I understand why people do that. (I mean, there's always, "people are dumb," but the folks I know who pulled that were not dumb. They were smart people! Which makes it even weirder, because it feels like if they'd been misleading, they would've gotten away with it!)