this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
48 points (94.4% liked)

Asklemmy

43946 readers
569 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (6 children)

What if they intended to fulfill the promise but never actually did? Does that not make it a lie all the same?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

I don't think so. That would make it a mistake. Just like if I made a claim that I believed true but wasn't.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Am I lying if I try to answer a question to the best of my knowledge and end up being wrong?

I don't think you can make something a lie retroactively if it was supposed to be true at the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There is still a bit of a gray area there, though, which is that if you know you are not a subject matter expert, you should try to disclose that.

Hence why "IANAL" is so recurring on any online discussion about legal advice, because you want to offer what insight you can but you definitely don't want to mislead anyone into believing your potentially dangerous legal advice is authoritative.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I disclose that by using words that describe my level of certainty. Like “I think” or “Possibly” or “It may be the case” or “I’m tempted to think”.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If I promise to drive you to the airport but moments before I'm to pick you up my mom has a stroke and winds up in the emergency room, and I call you and tell you get a cab my mom just had a stroke. Did I lie? Answer : no I didn't.

It's only a lie if I had no intention of picking you up to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It's not a lie the first time. But if you promise to do the dishes and then go to bed without doing them several times, the next time you promise it, it's a lie.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Going to bed without doing the dishes even once makes it a lie, unless you’re literally passing out and just happen to steer yourself to fall on the bed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Still not a lie if you intended to do them. It turns out to be misleading, false and a failure but thats not lying.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

No, that makes the person who promised to do something incapable of doing it. If I promise to jump over a stool and fail that doesn't make me a liar because I actually intended to fulfill that promise.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

No, its only a lie if they say they were going to do it without ever intending to do so. If they intended to do it and something happened that prevented them from doing it, it wasn't a lie. If you're looking for a reason to be pissed at someone for not fulfilling a promise you still can be justified depending on the rest of the context.