Why do people lie?
Surely, there are a myriad of reasons. Sometimes people lie for perceived protection for themselves or others. Some habitually lie. Some are pushing an agenda. Some spread mistruths - sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly. Some people are really convinced they are telling the truth, when, in fact, they are not. Some people just wish to be contrary - and that is the point of this post.
As a young man, I remember watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Through the wonderment of the interwebz, I have since learned that the episode in question is named "In the Big Inning." This episode stood out to me first because it was about baseball, and I have always enjoyed watching and playing the game of baseball. The second part that stood out was a moment when the umpire advised the teams that 3 strikes is an out, 3 outs are an inning, and 6 innings is a game. One of the players protests and says "last year we got 4 outs!"
Outside of a dropped 3rd strike leading to a runner getting on base, or some similarly odd situation, my Google-Fu yielded no entries to the possibility that there have ever been 4 outs to an inning. Maybe prior to the formalization of the game? Nevertheless, the player on the show was simply being contrary for the sake of being contrary. And I wondered as a lad why he would say something so patently false. Here is a link to the video - the moment mentioned happens at the 31-minute mark.
Later in life, I had a friend in High School who was very contrarian like this. Naturally, he grew up to be a Democrat. He would say something against the grain, just to be against the grain. It didn't matter whether the statement was true. A number of modern Dems are just like this.
This idea came up because in a prepping group on social media, I witnessed a person say that dryer lint does not light on fire. He gave the caveat of lint from a dryer where dryer sheets were used. In my observation, lint is very flammable - regardless of the use of dryer sheets. While I'm open to the fact that perhaps not all dryer lint catches fire, in my observation, the only time I've seen it fail to catch fire was when it is completely soaked in water. I realized very quickly that this person was a contrarian. In my observation, people like this are just seeking attention in another way.
Naturally, someone might hold a single thought or opinion that is contrary to the mainstream. That is not what this post is about. This post is about those who intentionally take an often ridiculous stand on something patently false, for the sake of garnering attention. Griefers and trolls would also fall into this categorization, in my estimation.
Thoughts?
Agreed - contrarian liars might be doing it for attention - they might also just be griefing or trolling. But the question about the latter categories is why? Attention might be the goal, but it also might just be to start an argument for the sake of wasting people's time in a group or stirring up trouble and dissent: i.e. sabotage of the group discussion.
ReplyDeleteSeen plenty of such sabotage in more serious-minded online groups trying to suss out problems caused by BS, usually in politics. There was plenty of the other kinds of BS you categorize - agenda-driven, knowing and unknowing, witting and unwitting, and earnestly sincere, but simply ignorant and wrong.
All of it had the effect of wasting time from the group trying to honestly and earnestly figure the things out. All too easy for an agent of disinformation or disruption to throw a monkey wrench in such things and muck up the works. Easier to work out in in-person discussions; online with anonymous posters and commenters, it's nigh-impossible.