When someone tells a story you don't believe

I wonder if boards is any closer to getting an AI detector up and running…

I actually had a spare ticket to the 1991 gig because we crashed into a Dublin bus on the way to the gig (!), and the lad driving went home because his lights were damaged, and didn't want to be caught in Dublin after the gig with no lights.

Anyway, I sold his ticket for a fiver, because there was a couple outside looking for 2 tickets but only had a tenner. I said I'd give them the spare ticket for a fiver and they could hope that somebody else might do the same. They could have been lying about only having a tenner (bringing this back on-topic 😉 ) but I felt like I had done my good deed for the day.

For me it depends on the intent of the lies.

I'm getting older now and more likely to call someone out on lies if they're trying to get me to dislike someone else etc

Context is key. I know a parent who continuously lies but our children are friends, so I'm not gonna call him out on it, but I'm limiting my child's access at their house and encouraging play outdoors etc.

Some you can call out immediately with a "do u want an egg with that waffle" type of comment.

Others you have to gauge/ ignore.

Either way, it's tiring and boring having to second guess people. Keep interactions limited if you must interact

well,Im only guessing here…from watching films on military/espionage type of stuff "wet work" is when your an assassin…that lad was only at most 24/25 so he'd have had to have started his "military" career when he was about 10yrs old…

aye true enough…10yr olds are feckin savages!

I said this to someone in PI before: I've had experience with a pathological liar in the past, and in my experience, they lie so habitually and constantly that they end up either believing their own lies, or view lies as so inconsequential as to be not worth batting an eyelid over, hence the "blank stare" response to being confronted.

My other learning from dealing with pathological liars is that they often assume everyone else lies as much as they do, and so they genuinely don't see the problem. This is why they serve you nonsense that they know you know isn't true - they're not deliberately trying to insult or patronise you, it just genuinely doesn't occur to them. They don't care, so why would anyone else, is generally the "logic".

I did know somebody who spun tall tales, turned out they were alcohol dependent. The tall takes would t ne essayist be fine whilst drunk, in fact more truth was actually told when inebriated, they deception was more when sober.
There is a condition known as Wernicke-Korsakoff, which typically affects the brains of alcoholics, as well as others who have for other reasons suffered severe thiamine/vitamin B1 deficiency, apart from certain plain memory defects, one of the key symptoms is “confabulation”, or making up stuff to fit around the narrative of stuff they have forgotten but can’t remember they have forgotten, for want of a better description. This is one cause of the real life Walter Mitty persona. They actually believe what they are saying during the moment they are saying it, so it’s not intended as deception, but is quite a sad condition in that a lot of self-awareness is lost.

Reminds me of the 'psychologist' that featured on RTE investigates with the madey uppy qualifications. (I had a personal rendevouz with her to the tune of 400e) She's had several pseudonyms but now works as an actual qualified psychologist in the HSE. Go figure.

Then there's Paul Kelly, also a feature of a Primetime expose, who posed a fake doctor in a previous incarnation of himself. It seems to be a fairly common for people to lie about qualification and experience when applying for jobs all the same. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to why people go to extremes but I imagine its some act of self preservation.

I remember years ago meeting someone of native american descent who told me about the meaning of feathers in their culture (Lakota) He said when kids reach a certain age they get their first feather as a right of passage and it symbolizes that they are now of the age where they can not tell a lie. The second feather when they receive it is a mark that they must always tell the truth. I like that.

They start young too. I had a lad tell me his uncle was president of Bolivia. We were about 9 years old. That was just the start of it.

Sure wasn't all of ireland in Stuttgart and Giants stadium to watch Houghtan stick the ball in the English net

I've had that thought too, about whether they just assume everything I'm saying is a lie too. I think there's something in it.

I wonder if others would agree that the following are some shared features of the chronically mendacious:

1. Intelligent and articulate.
2. Underachieved in life, in terms of career, academic success, talent - just not reaching obvious potential.
3. Very wide circle of friends, largely superficial.
4. Has two modes: gregarious entertainer or dark mood tyrant
5. Convincingly knowledgeable about military matters or combat.
6. Suffers from mystery ailments or has an 'old injury' that nobody remembers happening.
7. An array of allergies and sensitivities that can be very unpredictable.
8. Claims to have brushes with, or insider knowledge of:
   1. Criminals and the criminal underworld
   2. Celebrities or pop culture.

I'm not really thinking about people who lie to achieve something, I mean those who tell pointless stupid lies for no reason, often but not always self-aggrandising.

When I was a kid in the 60s, I grew up in an ordinary Catholic household as was the norm then, certainly not over-zealous, and my mother would bend the rules a bit and was always very compassionate. My mother, as most parents did then, wished that I believe in a God, a higher power to call upon in times of need too.

She begged my father not to do the pretence of Santa Claus at Christmas, (that presents would be from them and not a mythical figure) her idea being that if they lied over Santa, then I would lose trust in the existence of God. My Dad was looking forward to doing Santa and didn’t want me being an outlier and going around telling all the neighbours children Santa didn’t exist 😁 He got his way and I got most presents I asked for, within reason.

He's dead now but there was this man used to tell the most amazing stories of how he was a prisoner of war in some country - he wasn't - and showed me a mark on his wrist he said was from the chains holding him. He used to tell them to my father too, unfortunately I can't remember most of them. He was a complete spoofer. He was very entertaining though.

One of his stories was of when you had to get an operator to call the UK from a payphone. He called his daughter and played the flute over the phone. He said all of the telecom operatiors in Ireland stopped work to listen to his performance, even the 999 staff wouldn't answer emergency calls because they were listening to his playing. Complete Walter Mitty I think he believed it himself.

He was a great laugh to have a drink with though.I was in the snug of a pub with him the night of the prisoner of war story He wasn't boastful just totally caught up in his reality. Pity I can't remember any more stories.