Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

What's a lie?  Is it the same as an untruth?  What about a fake?  Well, a "lie" is defined as "an intentionally false statement."  An untruth is simply "a false statement."  A fake is "a thing or a person who is not honest."  Clearly, they are not the same things.  I look at them this way.  If I'm running down the road, and I see a car approaching that has on its turn signal, I assume it is going to turn at the next available street in the direction of the turn arrow.  If the car does not turn there, whether the turn signal is a lie or an untruth depends on the driver's intent.  If the driver thought the next street was their street, or if they forgot the arrow was on, the turn signal is an untruth.  If, on the other hand, the driver knew it wasn't their turn, but wanted to mislead me as to where they were going, the turn signal is a lie.  A fake is what the turn signal in fact was, as it was not correct, regardless of intention. 

Here in the Trenches, we deal all the time with things that are not true, and things that are fake.  We have to determine whether what is not true is a lie or simply an untruth.  So does a judge.  Sometimes, it's not easy, and thus, sometimes we get it wrong.  Wait.  Do people really lie on the witness stand?  You bet the do.  Even after they swear an oath to tell the truth.  Yup.  Take one of my cases. The father testified that he was going to remain in Maryland with the child and settle here.  He also testified that he and his fiancé were going to be married after the trial.  After the appeal period ran, it came out that he might, in fact be moving to another state, and that he thought he might do so at the time he testified he wasn't moving.  Certainly, his testimony was untrue.  Was it a lie?  Maybe.  If he hadn't really made up his mind, but he thought he might stay here, then it simply turned out to be untrue.  I think it was a lie, but that's just me.  It also came out that his fiancé moved out 2 weeks after trial and that they had broken their engagement.  Was the fact of their marriage untrue?  Yes.  Was it a lie?  Given the timing of the broken "engagement", and the timing of the making of the engagement coincidentally right before trial, I say yes.  He said it to deceive.  Even if neither of these statements by the father were lies, is he nevertheless a fake.  You betcha. 

People lie all the time.  Sometimes, it's the little white lie that spares someone's feelings.  At others, it's the lie of omission, of not telling the whole truth with the purpose to deceive.  At still others, it's an outright lie.  We all know people lie.  We teach our children it's a bad thing from the time they're small.  We tell them they can tell us anything, and so long as it's the truth they won't get in trouble for telling us the truth.  We have honor codes in school because lying about your work is a bad thing. We tell children this because people lie.  Yet, we assume people tell the truth.  In law school, even, we teach that people don't lie on the stand, and we don't say anything that insinuates people are less than truthful.  In the outside world, however, we check alibis, we require corroboration of testimony, and we even have a name for the crime of lying on the witness stand - perjury.  Why would we do any of that if people don't lie.  Don't call it a simple untruth when in fact it's a lie.  That would be fake.  Here in the Trenches.