How honest are you, or how often do you lie?

[Aniko]

I'm usually brutally honest which causes me a lot of troubles. Lying for me is "dishonest", a bother and a waste of time, and I don't have enough imagination for this. However, if I want to survive in this society I need to lie a little, but I'm not totally lying, I just keep some info for myself, dodge, shirk, evade, escape, ask another question, focus on another point...etc.

Examples:
Being asked "Do you like my new hairstyle?"
My normal brutally honest self would say 90% + of the time: "I didn't notice"
and the other 10% or so, would be either: "Hmmm... I don't really care" "It's...hair..." 'No!" and not very often "Yes!" (but if it's a "yes" they wouldn't need to ask me, I would have noticed already.)
See the troubles coming?
So I won't say "it's a change" or "do you like it?" because it's like admitting you hate it and are lying.
So now I say: "It's a new color? I like the color" "It's trendy" "Oh wow, you also bought a new shirt!" "which salon did you go to?" etc...
BUT if it's really really ugly.... I may not being able to lie at all.


When I was in school for the final exams, we had been told NOT TO BE LATE, because being late = ZERO
But that day, there was a snowstorm, the bus in my area was not working, I asked my mom for a lift but my mom is always late, then the snowplow passed and we had to shovel again...
While I was putting the shovel and everything back in the car my mom closed the hatchback too fast and cut my forehead. (no time for this!) So I ignored the pain and blood and we went right to school, but there was also a huge accident on our way involving one of my classmate, who was miraculously not injured at all. (There was a car under a van, it was big enough to be on the news)
So yeah... I arrived late for the exam.
The teacher was ready to kick out anybody late but my classmate came just a few seconds before me and spoke first, explaining the accident and all, the teacher, of course, had heard about it in the news, then she looked at me and I said "Yes, I saw her, I was there too" and then she pointed at my forehead that was still bleeding and I just mumbled "little ...accident...car" and she said "Oh my god! You got injured in that accident too! Can you do the exam? That's ok"
... and it's how I didn't get ZERO

But you know what? Often, when I'm telling 100% the truth, people don't believe me, because my life is full of absurdities it seems and people think I'm inventing stories or joking when I'm 100% serious. But if I get tired of this and tell a lie instead which for me smells like the biggest lie because I'm so bad at it...they believe me. Go figure.

 

[Briar]

I'm pretty honest for the most part. The only times I really lie is if it's related to keeping someone else's secret, a safety issue, or such. Situations where telling the truth could cause problems. I don't just lie for fun or to manipulate people

 

[Romaki]

I lie if I have a good reason, at the same time I'm also too honest - but moreso that I'm blunt and direct. Like, I'll tell my niece Santa is real but I have no problem cursing in front of my teachers. Maybe that's putting myself too much in a positive light, but I can't really think of another lie I told recently. But I'm all for it, I don't want unnecessary stress or fights or heartbreaks or whatever. I'm a peacekeeper for sure.

One random post that once stuck with me was "what is brutal honesty for? who needs your brutality? why is your honesty not kind?" and I felt that so much. You disliking something is not an objective truth. People often just want an excuse to be brutal and think they're moral for it.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Trigger warning: mentions of abuse

Spoiler

I lie on occasion, mostly to keep the peace or not to hurt anyone’s feelings. The only time it seemed like I was a compulsive liar, it was really more of a defense mechanism so that my abuser wouldn’t hit and punish over the most minor thing. Before I cut off ties with her and all contact, I found out that sometimes telling the truth was far worse than being honest. If I forgot to call her when I was supposed to, I knew she would have started screaming at me and hitting me while telling me how I was so “ungrateful” towards her for sacrificing her entire life to take care of me and that she deserved all of my respect. If I lied and said the line was busy then she couldn’t get mad at me because she did like talking on the phone a lot. I’m actually a little bit too honest and any lies I tell are small harmless ones and I have never started any rumors or gossiped about anyone and if I say something negative about them then it’s most likely true as I am not one to make up things about people. If I’m wrong about a person then it was because of a misconception or misunderstanding.

 

[Gabby]

I only lie when necessary.

 

[-Daydream-]

I try and be honest most of the time. My mom says sometimes I overshare and that I’m too honest