What the **** is wrong with people?

[the_antithesis]

Why do people lie?

Well, they don't necessarily lie, as per Harry G Frankfurt's On Bullshit.

Why do they bullshit? Frankfurt says they bullshit to further an agenda but I don't think this is always the case.

For example, my roommate has a massive fuck-off television in his living room, which is a tad small for such a monstrosity. In the basement of the town house is an even bigger projection television. I asked him why this was in the basement with a blanket thrown over it, he said that it was too bulky for the living room. Later on, he gave the smaller CRT television in his room to a neighbor and he disclosed that the reason the big television is in the basement is because it's broken and needs a new bulb, which costs about two hundred buck.

What agenda was he furthering by not simply saying the television was broken? I know no one here can say because you don't know the guy, but I live with him and I have no idea, either.

I think people just lie because facts are not very solid to us. One fact is as good as another, so long as we have one. We can always change it later and act like we never said any different.

[Insult to Rocks]

He may have forgotten it was broken, or maybe he does think it is too big, as well as being broken. As per the thread question, there is no real answer. Humanity is far too diverse and complex to be able to boil down our behavior into a single answer. In fact, most of our greatest problems have arived due to generalization.

[Hydra009]

A lot of the time, when people lie, it's because the truth is embarrassing or shameful.  In other words, people lie to save face.  Perhaps he didn't want to fess up being unable to repair it or neglectful in repairing it.

[Plu]

For whatever reason your roommate has built a character for himself, and his actions and lies are an attempt to make you believe he's that character and not his real self. It's something almost all people do, the only difference is in how far apart the real you and your character are. Many people even maintain multiple different characters for multiple different people. You can often see them get tied up and confused when they need to communicate with multiple people at the same time, when he normally uses a different character for each.

And sometimes they break character, and you get two different answers to the same question, and it is confusing. Because we're also very good at believing that people are the character they show us.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

You should coax him over near the basement window then casually give him a nudge so he plunges up to a horrible death then lie about it. "He slipped! "  :-$

[Atheon]

What's a "fuck-off television"?

[the_antithesis]

What's a "fuck-off television"?

That's "massive fuck-off television" "Fuck-off" is a modifier for the adjective. As in "That's a massive sandwich, Bill. Holy shit! That is a massive fuck-off sandwich, Steve. How the hell do you eat all that?"

[Atheon]

What's a "fuck-off television"?

That's "massive fuck-off television" "Fuck-off" is a modifier for the adjective. As in "That's a massive sandwich, Bill. Holy shit! That is a massive fuck-off sandwich, Steve. How the hell do you eat all that?"

Thanks. Never heard this expression. Same as a "massive fucking television", I guess.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

In other news Sony announces the 2015 new Go Anally Rape Yourself With A Barbed Wire Wrapped Cactus TV!  :-D

[Jason78]

What the **** is wrong with people?

They're still breathing.

[aitm]

Don't put too much into this instance. It's not like he lied about where he buried a body. Sometimes I, and I would think many of us, are in mid thought when some questions are tossed and we just let loose a stream of words that we immediately wonder, "what the fuck was that?" But you really can't say, "Oh I lied, I meant my shit really tastes like peanut butter". I don't know why I have done this but has absolutely no intent, it just rolls out like a river of words flowing over a cliff and you just pick the words as they go over.... weird.

[the_antithesis]

Don't put too much into this instance. It's not like he lied about where he buried a body. Sometimes I, and I would think many of us, are in mid thought when some questions are tossed and we just let loose a stream of words that we immediately wonder, "what the fuck was that?" But you really can't say, "Oh I lied, I meant my shit really tastes like peanut butter". I don't know why I have done this but has absolutely no intent, it just rolls out like a river of words flowing over a cliff and you just pick the words as they go over.... weird.

Yes, but why? It's not just this guy or just this instance, either. We work at the same place and he was asked to work the morning shift yesterday while I was asked to work the evening because there was some sort of event yesterday I don't quite understand. He came home early and said there was only two machines running. Before I left, about a half hour later, he said there was three machines running. I get to work and there's four machines running and there was five running but one got shut down for uninteresting reasons. Neither three nor four is the same as two. Why'd he say two in the first place only to say there was three later without missing a beat? Especially when they had five running at one point before he left. It was annoying for me because I thought I'd get out of work early or at all since it was overtime for me. No point paying me time and a half to stand around. But that wasn't the case at all.

I dunno. I think that our relationship with truth is less important than we'd like to think.

[aitm]

Well, now he is just lying....see?    :)

[Jack89]

Because thinking is only partly rational, and usually not the big part.  There's a Hume quote in there somewhere.

Like others have been saying, it's probably an ego thing.  Why do some people worry about little shit they can't change?

[Aletheia]

For whatever reason your roommate has built a character for himself, and his actions and lies are an attempt to make you believe he's that character and not his real self. It's something almost all people do, the only difference is in how far apart the real you and your character are. Many people even maintain multiple different characters for multiple different people. You can often see them get tied up and confused when they need to communicate with multiple people at the same time, when he normally uses a different character for each.

And sometimes they break character, and you get two different answers to the same question, and it is confusing. Because we're also very good at believing that people are the character they show us.

This would be closer to the truth and is often alluded to in psychology. We are taught from a very early age to "be a nice person" when around certain people. We learn from our friends to "be ourselves." We learn from people we wish to impress to "be an impressive person." At work we need to "be a productive member of the workforce." These demands are prevalent and the shift from one persona to another is usually automatic. If you're receiving inconsistent answers from your roommate and he doesn't have much to gain from lying, then chances are he has yet to figure out what kind of person he needs to be around you.

I know at work I present the persona of being much younger and more naive than what I really am because it elicits a positive reaction from the customers which in turn makes them more understanding when I do make a genuine mistake. This persona isn't the "real me," but it is a means to an end nonetheless. When I am home, I assume a more concerned and thoughtful persona which is closer to the "real me," but brings forth more assertive attributes since my role in the relationship has to be more dominant to balance his more submissive personality. With family members who know me, my persona is the "real me" because I know they have come to accept my faults (whether they like it or not) so I see no need to cling to any sort of persona. If asked a question by a customer, my boyfriend, or my brother... the answer could vary depending on the nature of the question and the most likely consequences. I don't outright lie, but I will choose a different collection of words to suit the audience.

For example:

To a customer:  "No worries, we all forget where we place things. The item you are searching for is located near the front door,"

To my boyfriend: "It's by the door where you left it this morning,"

To my brother: "How the fuck should I know where it is and why the fuck should I care? Oh look, it's by the door hiding under a pile of what looks to be dirty clothes or else you've started renting out sections of your room to a local landfill."