The Ways We Lie

Have you ever told a little white lie and it not be so little after all? In the world today you will run across so many who lie from small to large but do you really know the consequences of those lies. In the story, "The Ways We Lie" Stephanie Ericsson defines several different types of lies and the reality of them she uses her own personal experience, historical facts, and some other different examples to show that these lies are relevant to today's society.

Ericsson gives you a brief summary of her day and how many lies she told in that days and then furthered her summary by explaining that no one was hurt emotionally or physically within the lies. However, when she deceased to go without listening to realizes how much lying helps prevent hurt she realizes that by just telling the simple truth it hurts more than the untold truth. Now she uses those examples to help elaborate on the lie " the white lie" the white lie was the little lie that does more harm than good if truth be told. However, she also shows that there are still negative consequences with every lie. With a little white lie, she uses the example of the sergeant in Vietnam who knew his soldier was dead yet lied and said he was missing to help the family. That's good right, wrong because he did that the family has to live their whole life having hope that one day they will find him and he will come home to them. Instead of just letting them grieve the loss of a fallen soldier he has made the family bare the grief forever not knowing where he is or if he is truly okay or even if he is dead or alive.

Ericsson then continues exploring a different type of lie that some may seem as just avoiding the conflict but in all reality, it causes more. By simply ignoring the plain facts of something that needs to be handled and just covering it up like it never happened will do than an exponential amount of harm than good. Furthering her explanation she gives an example of a priest pedophile who was caught having sexual encounters with children and when ht higher authority found out all they did was move him so he could keep doing which never helped anything just made it worse for other children. This is actually a very bad type of lie that has recently happened. IN Florida there was a school shooter and when the story was looked into the investigators found that the student shooter had a history of gun threats and violence misbehaviour and had even had the FBI called but the FBI didn't do anything ignoring the plain facts that he was dangerous and could do some serious harm and in turn the boy ended up buying  a gun going in to a school and shooting it up where he did serious harm.

Another popular lie that is relevant to today's society is stereotypes and cliches. Many don't know the true meaning of stereotypes and cliches, well, they are lies of exaggeration, omission, and ignorance. These types of lies are very dangerous because they can get people killed real fast around the wrong person. A popular stereotype is that every white cop who shoots a black person or any person of color is there for racist. Racism, sexism, ageism, etc, are all "founded on and fueled by stereotypes and cliches". IF anything this type of lie is one of the biggest problems America has today is what it is seen as now cliches and stereotypes. Some other stereotypes and cliches are every Texan wears cowboy boot sand hats big belt buckles and drives a truck which is not true Texans dress the same as any other person in the United States of America.

Even though Stereotypes and Cliches are the most popular across the world "bald-face lies" are a close second. A bald-faced lie is when the lied to knows the actual truth and the liar tells a completely different story thinking that he lied to doesn't know the truth. A bald-faced lie is on eo the most popular among younger children who don't want to be spanked. An example of this that is relevant to today's society is when Johnny was told no cookies and goes and gets a cookie and there are crumbs on his shirt and when asked if he had a cookie and he says no you can prove he is lying by the cookies on Jonny's shirt.

Overall Ericsson proves the relevance of lies today their consequences and their good but she finally tells you that nothing good will ever come of lying. "You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything".