It has been awhile since I wrote a word hijacking post. These posts are written to illustrate words that have been taken and used for propaganda or emotional purposes in ways that do not actually fit with what the word actually means. If you wish to read the older posts which began two years ago here are links to them. [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ]

I didn't actually think of doing a post of the word hijacking of the word "lie" until very recently. I was discussing some common things I hear these days with @thoughts-in-time on the discord server for #informationwar tag and he actually used some similar statements. I trotted out some of the things I often say when encountering these common statements about lies and liars and he at some point reacted with an epiphany. He indicated he had been using the word "LIE" wrong all of his life and didn't even realize it. I pointed out how the word had been hijacked and he recommended I write a post about what we discussed as he thought it was important. I told him I had done word hijacking posts before and I shared with him the posts above.

He is right. The word LIE and how it has been hijacked is perhaps one of the most important I can talk about. I simply didn't realize it, as it was obvious to me and I assumed other people could see it too. I assumed wrong.

LIE

In this day and age it is not hard to find news articles, forum posts or comments, and many other types of media and communication where people are referring to what someone said as a lie, or indicating that the person lies all of the time.

What they apparently don't know is that in the majority of these statements are wrong. I am not saying this about any particular target of such statements, or any political, religious, sexual, or racial preferences. It is happening from all directions and groups.

Yet it is still typically wrong.

So does that mean the people saying these things are lying too?

No, it does not.

One thing that apparently many people these days don't understand is the difference between being incorrect, naive, wrong, etc. and lying.

There is an important distinction.

A lie requires intent. That's it. That is the simple distinction.

A person must know that what they are saying is false, and say it anyway. That is what makes it a lie.

If they believe what they are saying then they are not lying. They can still be wrong, or incorrect, but they are not telling a lie.

Now whenever I have brought this up in the past it has been in response to something like "X has been caught lying incessantly" and I'll indicate that I can't find cases where X is saying something and giving any indications they don't believe what they are saying. I'll point out that they could very well be incorrect, but being incorrect does not mean they are lying.

If being incorrect is the same as lying then all of us are liars. None of us are gods. We are wrong, and incorrect about things. We are naive when it comes to certain information. We are not experts on everything. There is nothing bad about being wrong. If we can acknowledge we were wrong then we have opportunity to learn. A person who thinks they are never wrong, is the most pity worthy being, as they have no opportunity to learn.

Some people that do know the difference between lies and being incorrect I do believe intentionally use the term lie for the emotional impact.

There is a problem with this that may not be immediately apparent. We generally learn new words only a few ways. We learn them by frequently encountering them used in every day conversation. We may look at a dictionary to see what definition this dictionary or that happened to list. We may learn it by having someone tell us what it means. Of these three methods I listed I personally believe the most common one is to learn words by encountering them as used in conversation and after encountering them enough we have a mental definition of that word form.

So what happens when you learn what lie means by encountering it used in place of incorrect?

You might end up like my friend I spoke with this about who didn't actually know that a lie requires intent to speak a falsity.

There is another important thing about the lie. You can still say someone is lying, but unless you are secretly able to read minds it can be difficult to prove. To prove someone is lying you really need to find some precedent that contradicts what they said. Yet even in those cases, it still may not be a lie unless it was very recent. We all have the right to change our minds. In fact, if we are so stubborn that we do not change our mind as we learn new things then that would make us a fool.

So proving someone is lying can be very challenging. Not liking what someone says does not make it a lie. Someone stating something that is inaccurate does not mean it is a lie. They may just be ignorant and incorrect about what they are talking about but believe every word they are speaking.

I've had this discussion frequently and it will usually drift to one additional area of discussion that I personally think is important to touch upon for completeness.

It is very normal for people I discuss this topic with to mention that some people believe their own lies.

This is true. Yet people who believe the lie the moment they speak it is actually a VERY RARE psychological problem. It is not normal.

However, there are people who speak a lie, know it is a lie, and then later convince themselves that the lie was the truth. This can be a valuable skill to teach yourself if you think you are likely to lie, but want to be able to beat lie detectors.

This does happen. I know people that do this.

I do think that ability is becoming more and more common, but it is not likely increasing in my opinion due to what people would normally think.

I currently think that habit is on the increase as the population views themselves more and more as a victim, and they are trained to see themselves as a victim. With such indoctrination we see an increase in people unwilling to take responsibility. It is easier to say "It is not my fault, X did it", or "it wouldn't happen if the government did X, we should make a law for that". It is increasingly less common to hear "Sorry, I made a mistake" and then have the person hopefully learn from their mistake. Instead they look for scapegoats. They are being taught all manner of terms to help them protect their victimhood status. "It was not my fault, they used a micro-aggression", or "We should make this a safe space against X".

As people think like this I think it is logical to assume that it would become easier to believe their own lies.

Yet as stated above if there was no intent, it is not a lie. They are simply incorrect.

I will say with some confidence that I see the term lie, liar, and lying used far more often in an inaccurate manner than in the correct manner.

Whether you personally THINK someone is lying or not is irrelevant. What you think doesn't matter when it comes to lies. What makes something a lie depends upon what the person who spoke was thinking when they said it. If they intentionally spoke something they knew was false then that is a LIE.

Did I beat this horse enough?

I did not pick any specific examples, as I don't think they were really needed. As you encounter the word lie. Think about intent. Can you prove the intent? If not, then you can't prove it was a lie. They can still be wrong, or incorrect, but that is a normal aspect of being alive and thinking. A lie is something different and is intentionally misleading.

This should be applied to the term "Fake News" as well. It should be intentionally misleading for it to be fake.

Such as standing in front of green screen in the U.S. while claiming to be in the middle east during a bombing strike, air raid, with air raid sirens. (yes, this happened). Such as claiming to be having an interview between someone in London and New York when in fact both people being interviewed are standing at different locations in the same parking lot in New York. (yes, this happened). Such as claiming to be at a large feminist, muslim protest when in fact it is just a small crowd operating in a carefully taped off section of a lot with cameras and everything carefully arranged so it can be edited to seem like something big. (yes, this happened).

Those are intentionally misleading. That is fake. That is a lie.

If you don't like what someone says, if they believe what they are saying, then that isn't fake news. It may be incorrect. Yet that doesn't mean it is fake.

How we use words is important. If we let people hijack those words we cede territory in our minds. Stop letting them take over your mental territory. If they misuse a word, call them out on it, and make them use more appropriate terms. In many cases what they were wanting to do will fall apart as it was based purely upon you letting them redefine a word to fit their agenda.

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