When’s the last time you needed to consciously tell a bald-faced, unambiguous lie?—something that could realistically be outright proven false in front of your peers, rather than dismissed with a “reasonable” amount of language-lawyering.
I don’t know about the last time I needed to do so, but the last time I did so was two days ago (Christmas Eve), when (IIRC) one of my grandparents asked me if I had brought board games to my aunt and uncle’s house while in the presence of my aunt, uncle, and/or cousins. In fact I had, but didn’t want to say that, because I had brought them as Christmas gifts for my aunt and uncle’s family, and didn’t want to reveal that fact, and didn’t think I could get away with being evasive, so (again, IIRC) I lied about bringing them.
I have a pretty strong preference against literal/unambiguous lying, and usually I can get away with evasion when I want to conceal things, and I don’t remember unambiguously lying previously, but I’m bad at remembering things and wouldn’t be all that surprised if somebody showed me a recording of me telling a bald-faced lie at some other point during December.
I think one could argue that “have you brought board games?” isn’t really intended to include the insides of yet-unopened presents in its scope, in which case you weren’t really lying.
(I’m not sure whether I would argue that. It might depend on whether Christmas Day was nearer the start or the end of your stay...)
‘IIRC’ because I remember being asked this question multiple times and lying once as an answer, but don’t remember exactly who was around or who asked the time I remember lying, and am not certain that I actually lied as opposed to being very evasive or murmuring nonsensical syllables or something.
I don’t know about the last time I needed to do so, but the last time I did so was two days ago (Christmas Eve), when (IIRC) one of my grandparents asked me if I had brought board games to my aunt and uncle’s house while in the presence of my aunt, uncle, and/or cousins. In fact I had, but didn’t want to say that, because I had brought them as Christmas gifts for my aunt and uncle’s family, and didn’t want to reveal that fact, and didn’t think I could get away with being evasive, so (again, IIRC) I lied about bringing them.
I have a pretty strong preference against literal/unambiguous lying, and usually I can get away with evasion when I want to conceal things, and I don’t remember unambiguously lying previously, but I’m bad at remembering things and wouldn’t be all that surprised if somebody showed me a recording of me telling a bald-faced lie at some other point during December.
I think one could argue that “have you brought board games?” isn’t really intended to include the insides of yet-unopened presents in its scope, in which case you weren’t really lying.
(I’m not sure whether I would argue that. It might depend on whether Christmas Day was nearer the start or the end of your stay...)
I think people quite frequently tell unambiguous lies of the form “I have read these terms and conditions”.
‘IIRC’ because I remember being asked this question multiple times and lying once as an answer, but don’t remember exactly who was around or who asked the time I remember lying, and am not certain that I actually lied as opposed to being very evasive or murmuring nonsensical syllables or something.