Lying to you or not

[Jazzy]

What is the best way to find out if a person is lying to you or not?

 

[Messy]

People warn you about em.

 

[Stravinsk]

What is the best way to find out if a person is lying to you or not?

In some areas, it's about acquiring knowledge that the liar doesn't know you have, and using good discernment. I'm not just talking about identifying (a) liar - like in the case of a spouse who suspects her husband of cheating and lying about it...but doesn't really know until she has gathered enough evidence to conclude that is what is happening and that he is in fact lying.

Sometimes the liars operate as a collective to influence a larger audience. But how do you know they are lies? Like the spouse who is being lied to by her husband, it's not always possible to tell at the moment. The lies are sometimes blatant, but not always. Often they contain some truth so as to be more plausible.


I will give an example of both.

1. The individual.

Some years ago, I had a older male friend who was married to his older female wife. I was really friends with him, but, by association, friends with her also. She was a nice old lady that had a spectacular (miraculous) story, and she told it often. I could not verify this story in any way, but after a while I began to suspect that the story itself was a prop because it was being used to legitimize some ugly aspects of her behavior at times while also communicating that she had a rather special relationship with God. Her husband didn't deny the story but he never looked enthusiastic about hearing it. Whether because of lots of repetition or some other reason I wasn't sure. However, like I said, I couldn't verify anything since it was basically her word about the past -- and I didn't know any of the witnesses she said were present.

- Until one day she sensed my doubt so she provided one, a mutual friend of her and her husband's that I also knew. She said plainly to me "If you don't believe what I'm telling you (about the miraculous event), then you can ask X" (the female friend). She was very firm that X would back up her story.

So I had the opportunity one time with (the friend) when we had a moment alone and I asked her plainly about the story. She shrugged and said simply " I have no idea if the story is true or not, as I wasn't there. "

That was pretty much all the confirmation I needed that the old lady's miraculous story was a lie. It wasn't just the testimony that her friend wasn't there, but also the nagging doubts about the story because of the way it was being used.

2. The collective.

These lies are told to larger groups of people, to manipulate them for political purposes as well as to hide crimes. As such, they are typically much more sophisticated that 1 or even a few people telling a story that could easily be debunked with a few facts. To keep these lies going, they must be worked into peoples minds at a young age, and reinforced often. This is done by hijacking aspects of the public school system and by heavily influencing media and especially entertainment in order to constantly reitterate certain themes and attitudes. The entertainment especially, has to be good quality and entertaining....because the purpose isn't only to entertain and pull on heart strings, but it is to continue to embed a lie. In this way, the person moved by the entertainment will have a very very strong reaction when the premise (a lie) is exposed as such. They typically cannot handle it, not only because of the programming from a young age, but also the emotional reinforcement.

 

[tango]

What is the best way to find out if a person is lying to you or not?

If it's someone I know the chances are they'll slip sooner or later and it will unravel.

If it's someone I don't know then it only matters if I'm relying on what they tell me. If it's a politician I know when they are lying because their lips are moving.