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Tell-Tale Signs Someone Is Trying To Bullsh*t You

person in pinstriped suit jacket straightening their tie
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Reddit user YoungTex asked: 'What’s a tell tale sign someone is bullshitting you?'

It's been said we're in a post truth era.

Deep fakes, AI and social media easily allow people to distort reality.

And while it's long been a criticism that politicians lie, never has it seemed so blatant and obvious.

So having a good internal lie detector is a valuable trait.


Reddit user YoungTex asked:

"What’s a tell tale sign someone is bullshitting you?"

The Devil is in the Details

"They're somehow full of—and lacking—specific information at the same time."

- CallMeAmyA

"I had a mythomaniac ex-boyfriend 18 years ago. I learned to recognize a lie when he spontaneously gave unnecessary details that each time related to an element of our life or something that I had spoken to him about shortly before.

"'Yes I collected the mail, I opened the mailbox around 3 p.m. but it was only ads so I threw them away, there was the catalog of such and such supermarket and the program of the town festival'."

"He hadn't picked up the mail. I had just told him a few days before that I was waiting for the program of the village festival."

"I was disappointed that he threw it away, but, amazing! We got it in the mailbox a few days later! They must have sent it twice?"

"'I don't know why the electricity is off! Yet I paid, I sent the check last Tuesday, I even went to drop it off at the post office so that it would arrive faster, did you know the teller at the post office is pregnant?'"

"We had our electricity cut off because he had not paid, and I was pregnant."

"'No, I was at work, I talked to my colleague Benjamin, he told me about his daughter who is 8 months old and has eczema, Benjamin even wrote me down the name of a cream that he advises'."

"We had a baby who had eczema, and my unemployed ex claimed to have started a new job while spending his days smoking pot in the woods."

"He was pretending everyday to go to work and had taken the business card of a random salesman named Benjamin, on which he had himself written the name of some eczema cream he saw on TV."

- Celeste_Praline

Trust Me Bro

"[they say] You can trust me"

- Total-Fly-9131

"'Ain't going to lie to you...'. You're about to be lied to."

- regular6drunk7

There's a Whole Lot of Falling Going On

"They enter the ER with something up their arse."

- llimed

"Generally I make allowances for people to bullsh*t me if they are just trying to save their dignity and it isn't hurting anyone. And who knows, maybe they really did fall on it. That has to be true of at least one person in the history of time, right?"

- aridcool

"Imagine being the guy who actually has a genuine accident in the shower. Your butt, elbow, and head hurt, you’re soaking wet, the shampoo has disappeared, and you’re lying on the cold tiles as the realization dawns that nobody is ever going to believe you…"

- AlpineSnail

No Questions!

"They get really b*tchy when you question what they're telling you"

- detective_kiara

"Not always. I get really annoyed when someone doesn’t believe me when I’m telling the truth."

- fokureddit69

"I've dealt with both sides of this from the same person. She'd blow any criticism, scrutiny, or disagreement out of proportion and inevitably have some reason up her sleeve for why her behavior was my fault. She would also accuse me of ridiculous things and would constantly twist my words in hurtful ways while acting like she didn't understand what I meant. To top it all off, she claimed that her therapist told her my annoyance and frustration always meant I was lying. It's like I was supposed to accept my words being twisted and my character being attacked. I got frustrated because I had to explain my words over and over and defend myself for things I didn't say or do. Total mindf**k and of course we would never resolve any issues."

- chiknfingaz

Rather Unhinged

"It is super easy to tell when my mom lies. She gets super defensive and her voice turns high pitched. Sometime she just starts yelling if you are completely straight faced"

- Waifu_Slayer1

"My ex was the same - flew off the handle in defence. Kinda interesting when I picked up on it as it meant I knew what was a lie and what wasn’t!"

- Resident__feeble

You Asked Me a Question?

"The ask the question you just asked back to you. 'Are you really a doctor?'

"''Am I really a doctor?' Definitely not a doctor."

- DevinBelow

- Mysterious-Dance-139

"I've heard this one several times. For some reason, they don't want to fully commit to the lie and say a blatant falsehood, so they strongly insinuate it without actually saying it.

"'WHAAAAAT? You think -I- did it?'"

- Black-Thirteen

Insults! Get Your Insults!

"They insult you when you are trying to clarify something with them. They try to avoid the question and suddenly start confronting YOU instead, and thats when you know they don't like you and have been bullsh*tting you from the start"

- dooboodd_

"Yeah they always try to turn it back to you and make you feel like the bad guy"

- LizeFaith

Too Good

"When it sounds to good to be true, it's most probably not true."

- I_wood_rather_be

Who Really Knows?

"I honestly have a hard time telling when people are lying unless I really know the person."

- Elle12881

"So does everyone. The only people who claim to know someone is lying are....lying to themselves."

"Some people don't like eye contact because it makes them uncomfortable."

"Some people overshare or give tons of useless details."

"Some people are fidgety when doing literally anything."

"Some people cover their mouth for a variety of reasons from shyness to being self conscious or having bad teeth/breath."

"If you don't know how a person behaves all the time then you're working solely off personal bias in claiming someone is lying. The best part, is there are people who do this for a living! They work solely for the prosecution teams in the courts because you can literally always point to someone's normal human behaviors and go, 'they are lying because they played with their hair when talking about what they had for dinner.' And people eat that sh*t up."

"The only way to know someone is lying is to know them when they aren't, and most of us are lying a lot."

- ThatsBushLeague

Remember: Not Everyone Communicates The Same

"i have adhd, i overexplain a tonne and it always sounds like i’m lying"

- Nethii120700

"same… reading this thread has me worried that everyone thinks i'm a liar because i exhibit a lot of these expressions, & i actually have experienced/known people who’ve experienced crazy unbelievable stuff happen to them, verifiably… but now that i think of it, probably no one may believe some of my stories lmao!"

- elfcountess

"'Some people don't like eye contact because it makes them uncomfortable.' I have that problem, and it sometimes make people think I'm dishonest with them."

- deleted user

There's No Sure-Fire Way

"Christ, I hate sh*t like this. Some doof will say 'when they look to the left before, while, or after making a statement' and then a million subdoofs spend the next few years fronting like they are Sam Jackson in Negotiator and accusing non-liars of lying."

- Decabet

"I tick a lot of the 'how to pick a liar' boxes… and unfortunately it‘d made me hyper aware of my body language, which I think makes me look even more guilty."

"I’ve got PTSD and a really spotty long term memory - I forget details of places, peoples names, events. I get mixed up in my mind where and when things happened. I’m not actively lying… but I forget."

"I’ll be able to tell you a detailed story about the time monkeys stole my brother’s skateboard, but I can’t remember whether it happened in Malaysia or Singapore, or which brother it happened to."

"I stumble over my words a lot unless I practice what I’m going to say beforehand… I’ll also forget what I’m talking about halfway through a conversation. Sometimes I’ll forget I’m even talking to someone."

"I struggle to make eye contact with people when I’m talking to them, and I use a lot of hand gestures and placeholder words (um, like, so etc.)"

- FormalMango

There's really no 100% accurate way to tell if someone is lying to you unless they tell you. People's communication styles are too different to be able to tell every time. But some of these examples are definitely a good place to start if you think someone might be fibbing.

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