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Technology and the End of Lying

HughPickens.com writes: The Washington Post reports that lying may soon become a lost art as our digital, data-hoarding culture means that more and more evidence is piling up to undermine our lies. "The research shows the way lies are really uncovered is by comparing what someone is saying to the evidence," says Tim Levine,"and with all these news analytics that can be done, it's going to enable lie detection in a way that was previously impossible." For example in Pennsylvania, police are prosecuting a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted earlier this year after data from her Fitbit didn't match up with her story, Just like you can Google a fact to end an argument, instant messaging programs that archive digital conversations make it easy to look back and see exactly who said what — and if it matches up with what a person is saying now. "Lying online can be very dangerous," says Jeff Hancock. "Not only are you leaving a record for yourself on your machine, but you're leaving a record on the person that you were lying to."

Even more alarming for liars is the incorporation of lie detector technology into the facial recognition technology. Researchers claim video-analysis software can analyze eye movement successfully to identify whether or not a subject is fibbing 82.5 percent of the time. The new technology heightens surveillance capabilities—from monitoring actions to assessing emotions—in ways that make an individual ever more vulnerable to government authorities, marketers, employers, and to any and every person with whom we interact. "We must understand that—at the individual level and with regard to interpersonal relations—too much truth and transparency can be harmful," says Norberto Andrade. "The permanent confrontation with a verifiable truth will turn us into overly cautious, calculating, and suspicious people."

339 comments

  1. And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Thaed · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Sure, sure. The technology works so well no one will ever be able to lie again.

    1. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's why I never post anything!

    2. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Lying is a self defense mechanism. When someone faces a threat it takes more energy to build up the courage and tell the truth, because our natural instinct is to tell a lie point the finger to someone else. For the most part telling the truth is better long term, but for many of those white lies it is probably better.
      Now on more of a point.
      This technology isn't about finding lying, nor is Though shalt not lie one of the 10 commandants. It is baring false witness or perjury. In essence where they need to take your statements as truth. So in this article electronic data is useful in solving crime and if you lied in court then you can be shown that you did, due to more evidence. Was I talking on the cell phone when the cop pulled me over? We can take his word for it, or we can just show the court the phone bill showing that we didn't make a call at that time. Is that acquisition that I did something that day true, perhaps there is digital evidence that I wasn't there. A cell phone log, where I was getting some data at a different location, or on the other side showing that I was indeed there.
      Now with this technology it can go both ways, that why it is extremely important that we don't have blanket over-site of our data, from the NSA, or other officials, unless via a warrant. We can't have truth cops, or even being flagged for suspicious activity if we very from our normal activities.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by RabidReindeer · · Score: 2

      As long as there are statistics, there will be lies.

    4. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is an obvious lie. I have seen thousand of posts by your screen name 'Anonymous Coward' on this forum.

    5. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by peragrin · · Score: 1

      Don't worry politicians will just ban computers and make data mining illegal.

      Of course by that point it will be to late.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    6. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Penguinisto · · Score: 2, Informative

      You bring up one good point... when it comes to politicians, you can spot a lie from them from 10 miles off.

      Example? In CNN's recent interview of Hillary Clinton, she claimed that she never got a subpoena for her private mail server... took less than 30 seconds to discover otherwise. Opposing ideology groups were broadcasting her false statement -- with evidence proving that she spoke falsely -- across social media even before the interview ended.

      However... it means approximately nothing. Why? Because the public at large is afflicted with three social diseases: a hard balkanized group of ideologies, a nasty case of civic ADHD, and the collective attention span of a fruit fly. Claim otherwise all you like, but as a general rule, do some research... you'll not only find it, but you will find it occurring at a distressing frequency.

      QED: Politicians can take comfort in the knowledge that they can continue to blatantly lie their asses off, and their political base will still love them unconditionally in spite of it.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    7. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is an obvious lie. I have seen thousand of posts by your screen name 'Anonymous Coward' on this forum.

      Everything I post is a lie.

    8. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "our natural instinct is to tell a lie point the finger to someone else"
      speak for yourself, creep

    9. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 1

      ...because our natural instinct is to tell a lie point the finger to someone else.

      Lying is not some "natural instinct", but a learned behavior to avoid a negative consequence. Other than that, I agree with the rest of your post.

    10. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 2

      Example? In CNN's recent interview of Hillary Clinton, she claimed that she never got a subpoena for her private mail server... took less than 30 seconds to discover otherwise.

      Technically, she is correct. She never received a subpoena for her mail server. She did receive a subpoena for certain emails, but not the server itself. Now did she speak truthfully? Probably not as for all practical purposes, people see the emails stored on the server and her email server as synonymous. But, the question isn't if she spoke truthfully, it is whether or not she lied, which she did not.

    11. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by orgelspieler · · Score: 2

      There have been studies showing that humans are not alone, when it comes to the fine art of deception. Certain birds, mammals, and even fish have been known to use some form of deception to improve their situation. One of my favorites is the cuttlefish, which can show flashy male mating patterns on one side of the body, but leave the other side (facing potential competitors) dull and uninteresting.

      As far as humans go, I imagine it's part learned and part innate. I have a four-year-old who lies all the time about stupid things that don't carry a negative consequence. Yet she's perfectly honest when I ask her whether she colored on her wall again.

    12. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by flopsquad · · Score: 1

      I'm confused as to how the very first post in a thread can be redundant? That's just lazy moderation.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    13. Re: And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Including this post. Which means everything you post is the truth. But if that is true, then how is the last post a lie? *brain explodes*

    14. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And we all know technically correct is the best kind of correct :D

    15. Re:And my wife Morgan Fairchild... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      Yea, and that is why babies will try to frame others for their actions before they even know how to speak.
      Face it, lying is one of our most basic instincts. It arose long before speech, and long before primates.

  2. Lies, I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Liars won't stop lieing. Few enough do even after confronted with their lies IRL. If anything, the lies will be more elaborately spun. That too can be done very convincingly online, we've seen enough evidence of that, too. Sure it will probably come out eventually. But by then the damage may well be done.

    1. Re:Lies, I say by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...and those that want to believe the lies will find more reasons to do so.

    2. Re:Lies, I say by Maritz · · Score: 2

      Everyone lies. Sounds more like you're thinking of a psychopath. Ordinary (shall we say neurotypical?) people are often completely mortified when caught in a lie.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    3. Re:Lies, I say by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1, Interesting

      ...and those that want to believe the lies will find more reasons to do so.

      I never thought about it that way, but that's actually pretty profound. It's like how the moon landing conspiracists have now woven a web almost as complicated as simply going to the moon, and other fringers will only be more convinced of the odd stuff they believe.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    4. Re:Lies, I say by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      You seem to be confused. In order to be completely mortified to be caught in a lie you first have to lie,

    5. Re:Lies, I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the contrary. The best lies are vague in nature.

      Look at the whole horoscope thing. "Today you will feel good". Knowing that, you'll keep waiting for that moment, and when it happens, yey! It works!

      Anyway, all this does is to make people more and more introverts. And for western civilizations where the population is growing slower even decreasing, it will have disastrous consequences.

    6. Re:Lies, I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have encountered some people who consider being called a liar, a term of endearment. They managed to pull the wool and deceive someone else, thus showed they were smarter or more cunning. The only time they tend to get mad when their attempt at a dupe fails.

      In the past, calling someone a liar used to be a major insult, likely resulting in an argument going to a brawl. However, times have changed for the worse in this regard.

      Don't forget the fact that the bigger the lie, the more it is to be believed, and couple that with "where there is smoke, there is fire", it only takes a whopper to be told repeatedly to enough people to burn someone's reputation.

      Finally, look at the press and our elected representatives in office. Both of these groups are the moral leaders of the country, and where they lead, the country follows. Most of them lie on a consistent basis, and do they see consequences for it? Very, very rarely.

      When I was young, I was told I could choose two paths:

      1: Be an honorable citizen, learn different skills so depending on where I was placed, I'd be useful. Raise chickens one day, design enterprise SAN architectures the next day, plan out how to make a secure, yet pleasant jail the third day, get two pissed off people to bury the hatchet (and not in each other's heads), write a college-level paper, and so on.

      2: Live in a big city, and succeed by just having one skill -- cunning. The ability to dupe others can go a long way, and some people can eke out a niche for themselves just by being good liars. Of course, the downside is that this skill choice means competing with many other liars for the same resources, and fighting for the same slice of pie as opposed to expanding the total pie, or baking one for yourself.

      3: Be a brain dead AC on /.

      I chose #3.

    7. Re:Lies, I say by Layzej · · Score: 3, Informative

      The technology enables us to lie more effectively. We can find whatever truth we desire:

      "The anti-vaccine agitators can always find a renegade researcher or random “study” to back them up. This is erudition in the age of cyberspace: You surf until you reach the conclusion you’re after. You click your way to validation, confusing the presence of a website with the plausibility of an argument.

      Although the Internet could be making all of us smarter, it makes many of us stupider, because it’s not just a magnet for the curious. It’s a sinkhole for the gullible. - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07...

    8. Re:Lies, I say by gtall · · Score: 1

      More generally, I think it is the demented result of a sort of relativism. What you say can be backed by scientists, but I will claim those scientists are not all scientists or that they do not uniformly agree, therefore my opinion is just a relevant as yours. The sleight of hand is that all scientific opinion is now relative and can be cherry picked to support whatever I wish.

      There is also the illogical step of arguing from the specific to the general in there. I have one counter-example so I can throw out the consensus. It is a wish for a black and white world: if you claim "most swans are white", then the black one I see is enough to claim "swans are white" is false. Technically, the statement is false, but the underlying belief is that I only need one counter-example to void your claim but subtly alter your statement to mean what I want it to mean.

    9. Re:Lies, I say by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I never understood that, really. The internet is the one place you can be completely open and not give a fuck about the repercussions. As I can be easily attached to my online persona it would be even more moronic for me to lie - the NPCs would catch on and then I would have to explain to them. It is the internet. No one can reach through and beat you up. Take your pants off, stay a spell, and be honest. If you can not be honest here then I dread living in your shoes in the real world.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re:Lies, I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Criminal: "Give me your money"

      Pedestrian: " I don't have any"

      Criminal: "I know you're lying according to my video analysis"

      Pedestrian: "gets whacked on head, wallet stolen"

    11. Re:Lies, I say by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      The obligatory obligatory

    12. Re:Lies, I say by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      I have to admit that I am beginning to wonder if we as a society are mature enough for the internet.
      The amount of pure stupid, rude, and or cruel on the internet is overwhelming at times.
      Just look at the comments on CNN sometime it makes Slashdot look like a bastion of sanity.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    13. Re:Lies, I say by Heart44 · · Score: 2

      Yes, there a people whose key skill is to lie convincingly. They can cause immense damage. Clipping their wings by showing them up more quickly would be a boon for mankind.

    14. Re:Lies, I say by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is profound. It gets interesting when you find that you, yourself have believed a clear lie for minutes, hours, days even decades. The first such experience is quite unsettling.

      Example: You fall for a scam. In most cases you knew you were being scammed when you made the crucial decision (signed or gave the money) but you went ahead anyway.

      There are *lots* of other examples.

    15. Re:Lies, I say by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I did not know they had a wiki... Things I learned today...

      Anyhow, I have often pointed out that my goal here is purely selfish. I am here to learn and this is, still, an excellent place to do that. It is a little rough to an outsider but there are still some gems in there. Most of the time people argue with me it seems they are saying the same thing I just typed. I should have a macro that suggests they re-read what I said. Sometimes the reply is based on things I did not say, of course, but that seems less often. Once in a while I get my views changed or learn something new. That is good - it is why I am here. I also share what I know but it is not altruism, it is just an attempt to replenish the supply and keep more quality responses coming.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    16. Re:Lies, I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not lying. Just read the wikipedia (replace with random blog or other url google finds) article I wrote.

  3. This is a curse... by MagickalMyst · · Score: 1

    ... for politicians, bureaucrats and profiteering corporations.

    --
    Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
    1. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not really. Facial analysis is unlikely to work on psychopaths, especially those who fully believes in the alternate reality the invent.
      That leaves looking at electronic communication, but that information is private. (For politicians, the whole honest people have nothing to hide thingy only applies to common plebs like you and me.)
      It is also only a problem for corrupt bureaucrats.
      True bureaucrats that follow the forms religiously won't have a problem with this. They would amputate their own legs if the correct check-mark for it is set. To them filling out a form untruthfully is a mortal sin.

    2. Re:This is a curse... by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This hasn't stopped politicians so far. You can go on line and find video of damn near any one of them claiming to fully support an idea and then in a different campaign claiming that same idea will be the end of civilization as we know it and (s)he would never support such a thing.

    3. Re:This is a curse... by war4peace · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Interestingly enough, saying two contradictory thing means that any one of them could be true. Or neither. Or both?
      Damn, I'm confused.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    4. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not really. They have control of the media, that is, the modern propaganda apperatus. The truth no longer matters in such a sphere. Lies can become truth, and truth blasphemy if the media simply choose a narrative and stick to it no matter what.

      We live in the age of "framing", "narratives" and "explainer journalism". The truth, reason, hard evidence? None carry more weight than a twitter post these days.

    5. Re:This is a curse... by Demonoid-Penguin · · Score: 2

      This hasn't stopped politicians so far. You can go on line and find video of damn near any one of them claiming to fully support an idea and then in a different campaign claiming that same idea will be the end of civilization as we know it and (s)he would never support such a thing.

      Yeah - much of what The Washington Post proposes only works if people are willing to: test their own beliefs; do the research; analyse what they read; can find the facts in the first place (like if, maybe - in an alternate future, Google, and maybe one day other search engines, can be forced to change recorded history).

      I don't dispute it's possible, but likely is another thing.

      As for software driven micro-facial expression used to recognise liars. I suspect it won't catch those that believe the lie (and bullshit is trickily nuanced thing). A 17.5% failure to detect "lies" could be a worry - depending on where the technology is deployed. I imagine that even with that failure rate it'd be damn handy at airports.

    6. Re:This is a curse... by Shortguy881 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Facts can be changed. Welcome to 1984.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    7. Re:This is a curse... by ciaran2014 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > This is a curse for politicians, bureaucrats and profiteering corporations.

      Whatever. Technology has been advancing since those institutions began, and they've only gotten more powerful.

      No advance in technology will strip them of their power unless it's created by a concerted effort to do so. It won't happen by chance.

      --
      Help build the anti-software-patent wiki
    8. Re:This is a curse... by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately it probably won't work because it will be unable to determine if there is any substance to their speech or the difference between lies and incompetence.

    9. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interestingly enough, saying two contradictory thing means that any one of them could be true. Or neither. Or both? Damn, I'm confused.

      Mission accomplished!

    10. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (like if, maybe - in an alternate future, Google, and maybe one day other search engines, can be forced to change recorded history).

      Ahh. you are talking about the "right for lies of corrupt politicians to be forgotten" laws of Europe

    11. Re:This is a curse... by afeeney · · Score: 1

      ... for politicians, bureaucrats and profiteering corporations.

      We already do that, time and time again. How many war profiteers, dishonest corporations, politicians, and other malefactors have been caught out in barefaced lies already? Of those, how many have suffered the consequences?

      Confronting a self-righteous liar with the truth typically only inflames their self-righteousness and that of their followers.

    12. Re:This is a curse... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Lies cannot become truth... they can be believed, even by many, but that does not make them truth. It may have been accepted one day as truth that the earth was the center of the universe, but that does not mean that it is actually ever was so, and it happens to be the case that sufficient observations since that time were able to ascertain that.

    13. Re:This is a curse... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      You are conflating "facts" with "history".

    14. Re:This is a curse... by rickb928 · · Score: 2

      Mod up. Please.

      Like this

      Or this

      Or this

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    15. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    16. Re:This is a curse... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      You can go on line and find video of damn near any one of them claiming to fully support an idea and then in a different campaign claiming that same idea will be the end of civilization as we know it and (s)he would never support such a thing.

      And this is one reason why I love The Daily Show. While the regular media will just play the latest clip of the politician saying "X will destroy America!!!", The Daily Show will then play the "I fully support X" clip. Yes, they do it for laughs, but they are informative laughs.

      To clarify, I have no problem with politicians changing their minds. I WANT politicians' views to change if new information is brought to them. What seems to be a great idea one day may seem horrible when new information comes in and vice versa. However, I don't want politicians changing their minds simply because poll numbers show that now Y% of people think that X is bad.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    17. Re:This is a curse... by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      I think you are taking the statement too literally. While the idea of a fact is steadfast, what people interpret as fact is not, and can be molded.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    18. Re:This is a curse... by TwoEyedJack · · Score: 1

      This hasn't stopped politicians so far. You can go on line and find video of damn near any one of them claiming to fully support an idea and then in a different campaign claiming that same idea will be the end of civilization as we know it and (s)he would never support such a thing.

      Exactly. For instance, two days ago Mark Levin played audio of Mrs. Clinton recorded a few years back sounding exactly like the Donald re: illegal immigrants.

    19. Re:This is a curse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not really. Facial analysis is unlikely to work on psychopaths,

      Also, you have heavy false positives from people who are nervous about something other than the questioning.

      No, I don't know where they killed the victim. I just can't tell you where I've really been because I was having an affair with the wife's sister. . .

      So sure, you can see that the person is hiding something. But perhaps he merely has reason to be embarrassed about something else.

    20. Re:This is a curse... by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Do you also don't want marketers to use research and statistics to alter their marketing strategy?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    21. Re:This is a curse... by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Lies cannot become truth

      X tells a lie. Y believes it to be not a lie but truth. Y tells the same "lie" to Z, but when Y speaks it, it is not a lie. Because Y is telling it true to the best of his ability and belief.

      False does not become true by someone believing it. But lie does become not-lie by someone believing it.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    22. Re:This is a curse... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Believing something to be true does not make it true... The difference between the two may sometimes be rarely discernible without keen observation , but that does not make them equivalent

    23. Re:This is a curse... by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      bingoUV is acknowledging that, and making the distinction that, apart from truth and falsehood, there's a separate axis of honesty and deception, that is orthogonal to that of truth and falsehood. A more accurate statement than "lies can become truth" would have been "falsehoods can become honest"; though they may have started out as lies (deliberate falsehoods), they can quickly become honest beliefs. Still false beliefs, but honest ones, no longer lies.

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
    24. Re:This is a curse... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      You seem to be missing the point. Someone can make a statement which is both a lie and the truth at the same time.

    25. Re:This is a curse... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Altering a marketing strategy is different than a politician who changes his views because "that's what the polls say." Such a politician can't be trusted because he'll change everything he stands for just to stay in power. It's staying in power that he cares about, not doing what's best for the people he represents.

      A politician who sees a poll change, examines the issue closely, and because of his examination finds new information that changes his opinion is different. That's fine. I will grant you, however, that it can be hard to tell the difference between a politician who uses a poll as an indicator that he needs to re-examine an issue and a politician who uses a poll as the only piece of data he needs.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    26. Re:This is a curse... by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      doing what's best for the people he represents

      Are you under the illusion that there is some "best" written somewhere which if done solves everyone's problems and there is no debate as to what the "best" is? Doing what's "best" according to whom?

      1. According to himself? Democracy is no place to apply one's theories on the people you represent. Such a politician better find or establish a monarchy with himself as the dictator.

      2. According to the people? Democracy supports this, but people's opinions need some channel to reach the politician. Poll could be the channel. The only problem with polls is that they may not be conducted well - due to sampling issues, wording of question etc.. But if these problems were avoided, poll is actually the only piece of data that matters.

      politician who uses a poll as the only piece of data he needs.

      Democracy, or any public voting based political system, mandates that people's opinion (majority of them anyway) is the only thing that matters subject to very few well defined rules if it is a constitutional democracy. No other "piece of data" is relevant.

      This public opinion could be wrong, and it frequently is. Politician might even know it to be wrong. Still he assumes office to fulfill the wishes of people and has no business having his own opinions.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    27. Re:This is a curse... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Arguably, a politician who goes with the polls to stay in power is what you want in a democratic system. A politician who goes with any other outside influence to stay in power is a danger.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. The smart ones don't lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I avoid lying at all costs. I tell half-truths instead or use subtle suggestion towards the way that's most convenient to me. This way I don't actually lie and can't be blamed for it and I don't get into too much trouble for something I've done and I only get in trouble for what I've done and not lying if I eventually get caught.

  5. will not work for poker games where people bluff by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    will not work for poker games where people bluff

  6. You can't handle the truth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Someone had to...

  7. All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... not always... just easier in some cases. Good liars will learn to work around the evidence and bad liars as usual will be caught as they always have been caught.

    I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done. I don't know... maybe its all just media hype but it seems like that has gotten out of control and maybe the law needs to be tweaked a bit to discourage false claims.

    One thing which I think is reasonable with false accusations is having the person sentenced to a smiliarly harsh prison sentence.

    If you accuse someone of murder and you KNOW they didn't do it... if you fake the evidence up... whatever... and it is proven in a court of law that you did all that stuff. I'm okay sending that person away for 30 years. Because that's effectively what they tried to do to someone else. They tried to get someone kidnapped and kept in a cell for 30 years. Imagine if I just grabbed you and threw you in a cell. What would the sentence for that be? Again... at least 30 years of me in being in a cell, no?

    Alright... so if some person makes a fake rape accusation and stages the whole thing... falsifies evidence... commits perjury. Then lets look at how long whomever would have gone to jail had the scam worked. If the guy would have gone to jail for 10 years then... if you can prove she tried to set him up... then she goes away for 10 years.

    The sorts of people that do this thing are generally cowards. They do it because they think they can get away with it and they think the consequences of being caught will be nothing.

    If you make it clear that their story will be audited and if it is proven that they tried to set someone up that they'll do the time instead... I think a lot of these bullshit cases will go away.

    I am applying this to all crimes. Not just rape. Everything. If you try and make it look like someone stole something... same thing If the person would go to jail for 4 years or something... you go to jail instead for 4 years.

    Do not make false claims before the court.

    The sword of justice must cut both ways.

    --
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    1. Re: All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're not original. Deuteronomy 19:19

    2. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      OK, we'll take that under advisement on your eye-for-an-eye thing. But, in this case, she didn't try to set somebody up. She just caused a lot of other mischief - causing the police to do unnecessary emergency response and investigation, etc. There was no person being setup. So, what is her punishment? Go do a bunch of emergency responding that isn't needed and investigation that isn't needed? Or is it to just pay back the money it cost? What about potential for others to have gotten delayed response due to this - does she pay them too?

    3. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0, Troll

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though.

      Does every story have to turn into an MRA victim rant?

      How is your post related to technology making lying more difficult?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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    4. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... The post literally cited a fake rape claim... and we're seeing those in the media constantly now... published by every newspaper in the western world.

      So I think you've confused "MRA" with "everyone".

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    5. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by jc42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done.

      Perhaps this is awfully unfair of me, but I get the distinct impression that unprosecuted rapes don't bother you half as much.

      Actually, this particular bias is to be expected, for both sexes. You'd expect women to worry mostly about unprosecuted rapes, since they're more likely than men to be raped. And you'd expect men to worry mostly about false rape accusations, since they're more likely that women to be falsely accused of rape.

      Similarly, you'd expect people with large bank accounts to be more worried about identity thefts than people who store all their money under their mattress, while you'd expect poor people to be more worried about armed robbery of what little cash they have.

      People tend to worry mostly about things that can effect them, for obvious reasons.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    6. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is awfully unfair. Show me something I said that suggests I'm okay with any crime going prosecuted?

      It is a mark of the times that expecting some integrity in these matters is read by some as advocating rape.

      Lets say I accuse you of murder... and you want due process. You want to my claims investigated.

      What if I turned around and said that all of that discourages people from reporting murders and that your due process rights effectively make it easier for people to get away with murder?

      Seem reasonable? Of course not. That is the general nature of the argument we're having though because you're suggesting that if false accusations are discouraged that I am thus a rape apologist or enabler or something.

      Nothing of the kind. I'm an advocate for due process and integrity in the law.

      So yes... that was awfully unfair... and silly.

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    7. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by zifn4b · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done. I don't know... maybe its all just media hype but it seems like that has gotten out of control and maybe the law needs to be tweaked a bit to discourage false claims.

      After having been married to a woman that would lie and do just about anything unethical to get her way, I believe this has to do with a certain segment of the female population that I like to call "ultra liberal feminists". I'm all for equality between the sexes but this particular group I think believes that all men are stupid and deserve to be taken advantage. I suspect these women were born to other that were in households were men assumed superior authority and were education on the "evils of men" because of their experience. This creates a false sense of entitlement that is unhealthy. What they don't realize is they raised a group of women that have false beliefs about men in general. It's kind of like how racism gets perpetuated through family generations. Very sad.

      Women, because they are typically not superior to men in the physical sense recognize that their emotional and intellectual savviness can be used to balance that out, sometimes in very sinister ways. Some day I hope we don't have this class, gender, race war type of stuff in our society and we can learn to all respect each other. We do much better when we collaborate instead of trying to take advantage of each other.

      --
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    8. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The GP is simply saying that perjury should be punished more harshly. Currently in the US it's max 5 years and in the UK max 7 years, but they are advocating 30+ years. It's not even really about rape, that was just used because it's a standard MRA talking point and because it's an emotive subject.

      --
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    9. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

      First, I'm not an MRA, and your immediate to leap to identity politics speaks far more poorly of you than of me.

      Second, if you set someone up to be potentially executed... that's attempted first degree murder in my opinion. The fact that you're using a state executioner to snuff someone is besides the point. So that's where I get numbers like that. If you set someone up to that extent for those sorts of crimes then you tried to lock someone in a box for 30 years. What is the crime for kidnapping someone and throwing them in a box for thirty years? Because I can assure you... it wouldn't be 5 years... or 1 for good behavior and probation which is apparently what you think is reasonable.

      Now, if you're at all capable of having a rational and honest discussion about this... you'll find I'm reasonable and open to other points of view. However, if you're got nothing but ad hominem, identity politics, guilt by association, strawman, and other assorted rhetorical bullshit... then I really have no choice but to label you a shithead and move on. I mean... what should I or anyone else do if they're met by someone in a discussion and that is literally all they do?

      Be a better person. You like to morally judge people but you never look at yourself in the mirror. Be a better person.

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    10. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      ... The post literally cited a fake rape claim... and we're seeing those in the media constantly now... published by every newspaper in the western world.

      I think you've confused "data" with the plural of anecdote.

      According to the very conservative numbers from the NCVS (national crime victimization survey) nearly 300,000 rapes and/or sexual assaults occur each year. Single or even double-digit number of false rape reports in the newspapers is statistical noise.

    11. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 3, Insightful

      its not about men or women. Human beings are opportunists by nature. Neither good nor evil... it is our nature to walk around and pick fruit from the ground or from the trees. We like the low hanging fruit. its easy to get at. We like big stupid animals that are easy to kill. We like the fish that are trapped. "like shooting fish in a barrel"... that's what human beings like. We like the easy way and we tend to avoid anything that is a pain in the ass.

      The issue is that the standards for evidence are a little out of whack at this point for certain crimes.

      A lot of it is just how effective it is to scare people into submission with political correctness. Nothing I'm saying is politically correct. And certain people exploit that to their personal gain.

      Al Sharpton does it with race. He'll show up and cause problems claiming people are racist... until you pay him. Then he goes away whether or not you changed anything or there was even any racism there in the first place. You pay him and he goes away.

      And a big part of our society just works that way. You can see a lot of it on slashdot. There are a lot of these twits that are just horrified that people aren't all scrupulously politically correct all times never mind if the politically correct answer is stupid. They don't care.

      Dogma trumps reality. its like a religion and they're the cannon fodder zealots. All we can do is hold the line and wait for the fever to blow over.

      One of the more positive things that has happened recently is that they got starved for victims so they started attacking their own political camps. They were basically doing purity tests. Once everyone is a liberal how do they justify their existence? well... they then ask "how liberal are you"... and they just start goal posting moving to make sure they have enough people to be outraged with at any given time.

      So anyway, they were doing that and eventually they hit a segment of their own political contingent that fought back. And now they're a little baffled because a lot of the wind has gone out of their sails. They're getting attacked from all sides now and they're losing credibility rapidly.

      Its funny because they're such dogmatic robots that they don't really understand what happened.

      We'll see... they'll either be suppressed to the general good of society or they'll osterize most of their political base which will lead to a structural schism in the faction which will weaken them collectively.

      Either way... these goofballs are at their zenith already. Its all down hill from here.

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    12. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As your original post acknowledges, perjury is already a crime. The only thing you seem to be calling for is to make the punishment for perjury equal to the punishment for the crime the victim was accused of.

      Making the punishment harsher probably wouldn't have any effect. Harsher punishments don't seem to have any correlation with reduced crime rates in general. The biggest problem is that perjury convictions are quite rare, especially in rape cases, because it's usually a case of she said/he said. If there is any physical evidence it tends to be unfavourable to the accused. Cases of people claiming rape when it can be demonstrated that they were not with the accused at the time of the alleged attack, for example, are pretty rare, but are prosecuted.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    13. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so what does that mean for you? this additional technology that the summary eludes to was not required to demonstrate you to be a repeat liar here on slashdot. you then exploded into an angry tirade as a response. if you are demonstrated even more quickly in the future to be a liar, what will happen then? will you be able to "contain" your anger to the point where you only unleash it upon people online or will you go further?

    14. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The problem with a reciprocal sentence for false accusers, is they will never admit it, if it will cost them jail time.

    15. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Login and I'll discuss that with you. Stay AC and I can't be drawn into the brier patch trolls and sockpuppets.

      You really didn't read your citation very closely and I can show you a few things about this topic using your own citation that would put a different spin on the issue. I won't bother unless you login though.

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    16. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The sword of justice must cut both ways.

      And that is why this will never be allowed to happen. Too many police and government officials would end up going to prison.

    17. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gynaggrl!!Grobble gangerlys!! You hate women sexist misogynerd white hetro cis male oppressive patriarchal scum. Your posts are harassment against those fighting RAPE CULTURE and should be banned for toxic online TERRORISM. It's not censorship if the government doesn't do it so we need to all band together and stop this sixk filth like ur chauvanist privilege porn vvictim blaming!! Hate sppech is not freeze peach!

    18. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Be a better person. You like to morally judge people but you never look at yourself in the mirror. Be a better person

      The thing is, many of them consider morally judging others as them being good people

      I mean, guy on the right probably thinks he's the good guy in the video, spreading his message of righteous and salvation in world full of sin.

    19. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is a mark of the times that expecting some integrity in these matters is read by some as advocating rape.

      Lets say I accuse you of murder... and you want due process. You want to my claims investigated.

      What if I turned around and said that all of that discourages people from reporting murders and that your due process rights effectively make it easier for people to get away with murder?

      Seem reasonable? Of course not. That is the general nature of the argument we're having though because you're suggesting that if false accusations are discouraged that I am thus a rape apologist or enabler or something.

      Your analogy to murder doesn't work, as the victim has no discretion regarding the reporting of murder.

      You suggested that the penalty for falsely accusing someone of any crime be the same as the penalty for actually committing that crime. That is not sensible for the crime of rape, although a false accuser registry might not be a bad idea.

    20. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For someone who disparages others for rhetorical tricks, you seem to move the goalposts pretty regularly. So far in this thread, you've refused to continue the debate with everybody who's engaged for for various (and often legitimate, wrt the shrill AmiMoJo) reasons.

      I agree with many of your points, but in this thread, all I see is you saying, "I'm perfectly willing to debate this, but I won't debate it with you because of xxx."

    21. Re: All this means is that you can catch them by rickb928 · · Score: 2

      Nothing about justice should be original. It hasn't changed in centuries...

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    22. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done. [...] One thing which I think is reasonable with false accusations is having the person sentenced to a smiliarly harsh prison sentence.

      Something should be done! There oughta be a law!

      --
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    23. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      One thing which I think is reasonable with false accusations is having the person sentenced to a smiliarly harsh prison sentence.

      As long as we apply that to cops and prosecutors, I would be more than happy to go along with that.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    24. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      yeah... like title IX... "There are to be a law" is basically how everything got this screwed up in the first place.

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    25. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All this means is that liars will get better at lying.

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done. I don't know... maybe its all just media hype but it seems like that has gotten out of control and maybe the law needs to be tweaked a bit to discourage false claims.

      It's hype by a patriarchal system that wants to protect men.

    26. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by radtea · · Score: 1

      Either way... these goofballs are at their zenith already. Its all down hill from here.

      This is my read on the situation as well, and the way you've reacted to the idiot who accused you of being an MRA is a nice example of how the future of this conversation will go: those of us who actually care about men's rights (because they are human rights) will continue to say the things we've been saying for years (decades, in my case) like, "Maybe living in a world where if someone dies on the job, there is a 92% chance they are male is bad thing?" People who are the argumentative equivalent of script kiddies will run their MRA script, and it'll bounce off the kind of thoughtful, fair and honest response you've given in this thread. The script kiddie will look like an abusive, angry, idiot, and that'll be the end of it.

      There are two clouds in this silver-lining: the post-modern left is so well-entrenched in academia that it'll take a generation for it to die off, although the trend is already there. The theoretical underpinnings of post-structuralism are so astonishingly stupid that as the decades pass they are necessarily eroding. Now that their major proponents are all dead, the cults of personality that sustained the nonsense are no longer viable.

      On the other hand, the post-modern right have come to dominant politics in the US and a few other places, particularly in Eastern Europe. They have absorbed the lessons of the left--particularly the notion that there is no objective truth, and what is accepted as truth is simply a social construct enforced on everyone by the strongest political bloc--and run with it as a pragmatic template for governance. The current crop of GOP and GOP-lite candidates in the US are all blatant serial liars, from Jeb Bush to Hilary Clinton, and their supporters are completely incapable of changing their minds when presented by mere facts.

      Detecting lies won't slow these people down unless we make a concerted effort to systematically make facts matter.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    27. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      If anything I would be more harsh with those people if only because they're in a position of trust.

      it is worse when a cop sets you up than if any random person does it because the cop not only harms a person but he also undermines the public trust of the legal system etc.

      I don't know how much more harsh I would be... but I'd be comfortable with the increase in severity being pretty extreme. As in... I'd like a fair number of the police that get caught doing that and know that they're going to get convicted... to basically have this response:
      https://youtu.be/_ALBpFg8DEw?t...

      So how does that sound to you? Fair? When I say double edged... I mean double edged. Anyone that presses the bladed should be able to feel its bite as well should they transgress the law themselves.

      I believe in equality before the law.

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    28. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No... I'm not talking about perjury.

      I'm talking about setting people up.

      They're not the same thing.

      If you ask me if I was at location Y at time X and I tell you something other that what I know to be true for ANY reason that is perjury but I'm not neccessily trying to set someone up. I could actually be trying to get someone off by giving them an alibi. Or I could be lying for any of a million reasons. Possibly I don't want to incriminate myself in another crime. Possibly the answer would reveal I was doing something embarressing that wasn't illegal but I didn't want to admit to it in a court of law.

      Any lie what so ever under oath is perjury.

      Setting someone up is more than that. It is the deliberate attempt to decieve a court of law such that a mischarage of justice will ensue that will claim your innocent victim under the false impression that they are guilty of some crime.

      The crime probably needs a special term and it needs degrees of severity just like murder or assault.

      First degree of this would involve premeditation.

      Second degree would be something done in the heat of the moment without consideration.

      I'm not sure what third degree would be. Possibly a more serious form of just perjury that included any lie told to a court that harmed someone even though you intentions were not to harm anyone.

      This would be in keeping with the way our legal system already works.

      Tricking a court into destroying someone's life for you... you wrong not only your victim but you also make the court an unwitting accomplice in your crime.

      It is not treated even remotely seriously enough. You do something like that and they should come at you last as hard as you tried to get the system to go after someone else.

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    29. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      look at you, making a liar out of yourself again, in a discussion about lying no less. you can be really hilarious at times, kid.

    30. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      First, I'd like to say I'm not an MRA... not because i don't agree with them on several key points or because i don't think they're a valid voice in any of these issues. It just isn't the perspective I come from in this issue.

      The modern marxist feminists generally are intent on shitting all over gender relations and poisoning the well between the sexes. That is not in society's interest.

      The MRA's are mostly interested in protecting men but they aren't as much interested in repairing the damage that the Marxists are doing to gender relations.

      My ACTUAL position is that I don't actually care a great deal about men's rights or women's rights so much as I want gender relations healed.

      The various sides will say that their gender must be respected for the rift to be healed but we know from thousands of years of human history that inequities between the sexes are quite tolerable so long as the culture normalizes it in some way.

      I am okay with men being shat all over. I say this as a man and no... I don't want to get shat all over. But if that is the price of peace then I'll accept it because I hold that as the most valuable thing.

      We need babies. Birth rates in the West have tanked and the tanking corresponds quite well with the rise of militant feminism. I don't know if it caused it... I just know it showed up around the same time. The damage is a problem and our society either has to deal with it or we have to prepare for large segments of our population to basically win the Darwin awards... possibly this should even be encouraged as a kind of cultural eugenics.

      The status quo being pushed at the moment is not sustainable. It is leading to a mass die off of everyone that believes in it. And the MRAs are not helping. They're interested in male rights just as the feminists are interested in whatever it is they think they're doing. But neither is healing the rift or getting people pumping out the kids required to meet population replacement rates.

      All of that said, I completely agree they are rhetorical script kiddies. They don't think for themselves. They just run memorized attack patterns.

      Its part of the reason I don't argue in predictable ways. Script kiddies don't work against me. I'm always a rhetorical Zero Day. :)

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    31. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Poster mentioned sex hysteria running out of control in legal system
      > by default an "MRA"

      Fuck off cuck. Your smearing tactics are past their sellby date.

    32. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by russotto · · Score: 1

      I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done. I don't know... maybe its all just media hype but it seems like that has gotten out of control and maybe the law needs to be tweaked a bit to discourage false claims.

      My guess would be the more lurid the claim, the more likely it is to be false. Since it's certainly true that the more lurid the claim, the more likely it is to make the news, this would suggest that a higher proportion of rape accusations that make the news are likely to be false than rape accusations overall. (and it probably holds for other crimes as well; kidnapping, for instance)

    33. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I'm okay sending that person away for 30 years. Because that's effectively what they tried to do to someone else

      In most jurisdictions except in middle east, law does a lot less to the criminal than the criminal did to his victim. One murder rarely gets a death sentences - in most of Europe and about half the US, a million murders may not get a death sentence because they have simply done away with the concept. Though cruelly incarcerating someone for a month might get years worth of prison - but that is because many prisons are forbidden to execute "cruel and unusual punishment", or "torture", worded and interpreted differently in different places.

      The sword of justice must cut both ways.

      Once a rape accusation fails to stick, the ex-accused can typically sue for slander if they have a case. The other things you want to "punish" are already crimes - staging the whole thing, perjury, falsifying evidence. What new are you looking for?

      Just the accusation failing to stick clearly doesn't deserve much punishment for the accuser, as probably you also agree, because it doesn't prove staging the whole thing, perjury, falsifying evidence etc.

      You are describing the world as it is, but disguised as "that should be done".

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    34. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      In the UK we call that "perverting the course of justice" and it is a serious crime. I'm sure there must be something similar in the US.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    35. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Hmm... I will pose a different view - if you do not mind.

      No, I will pose it even if you do mind.

      The victim is not just the dead person. It is also the people who were friends and family of the victim. They could, in this strange hypothetical, be the ones whom you (not even sure if it is you at this point and I am too lazy to go up and look) are claiming would be intimidated and not report the crime. His analogy holds true well enough. Analogies do not have to be perfect, decrying them because they are not perfect is not a valid argument.

      Yes, yes I have decided I am the referee today. You may now go about your usual discussion and slather each other with feces. No minds, no views, no opinions will be changed. No one will think, no one will view the other side, no one will be rational. Note: I did not, and do not, offer an opinion on the subject. I simply point out the validity of the argument as stated and believe that it stands on its own merits and should be debated properly. I can think of a couple of ways. I have no opinion, authority, or facts to cite so it is not for me to opine.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    36. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As serious as the crime you were accused of? Because... if someone tries to use the justice system as a weapon... to send someone to prison for 30 years... then they methodically plotted to lock an innocent person away for 30 years.

      The subvesion of justice is a crime on TOP of that.

      So think of the sort of sentence you give a guy running a rape dungeon under his house... then add subversion of justice on top of that.

      You're looking at at least as many years as they TRIED to set you up for.

      Someone tries to send you away for 10 years using evidence they invented? I'd have a 10 year minimum sentence on that. That's minimum... time served could be well in excess of that.

      The underlying point is that messing with the justice system like that should be understood by everyone to be taking your life in your hands. Because if the system figures out what you tried... it will turn on you with the same wrath you tried to inflict on someone else.

      You try to set someone up for a small crime? Okay... small sentence. You try to set someone up for a big crime? Big sentence... all the way to death sentences if you tried to get someone executed.

      Moral of the story is don't play with fire unless you're prepared to get burned.

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    37. Re: All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may astonish you to realise this, but there actually is a world outside America, and the definition of a legal term may actually vary from one country to another. Here in the UK, a notorious case has just been concluded in which the accused, Andy Coulson, was acquitted of perjury. The case turned specifically in the question of whether he had merely lied or actually perjured himself. Because in Scottish law, perjury is not merely any lie under oath: it is a lie that relates to competent evidence and is material to the subject of the case or investigation.

    38. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I'm not talking about slander and I'm not talking about perjury.

      I'm talking about trying to use the criminal justice system as a murder weapon.

      As to how things are done in the west. I am more familiar with western philosophy, legal tradition, and culture going back thousands of years than you would probably realize it.

      There are a great many precedents for what I'm talking about.

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    39. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      Also, it is better for the guilty to go free than for the innocent to be punished. Saying that someone who agrees with this fundamental principle of our legal system doesn't want rape prosecuted is simply an ad hominem.

    40. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

      I think you've confused "data" with the plural of anecdote.

      According to the very conservative numbers from the NCVS (national crime victimization survey) nearly 300,000 rapes and/or sexual assaults occur each year.

      Interesting. Does the NCVS gather any stats on the crime of false accusation of rape? No? Can you point me to any reputable organization that does?

      Single or even double-digit number of false rape reports in the newspapers is statistical noise.

      Reported rapes are themselves a dark figure; false rape accusations are an even darker figure. In practical terms, it may be impossible to get to the actual number of false accusations.

      Nonetheless, the FBI's numbers say 1 in 12 reported rapes are unfounded. The FBI also notes that for the more general class of "false accusations of adult crime", women perpetrate the majority of them.

    41. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Some of us are more mature than that and try to take a more grandfatherly view of things.

      I'm not worried about being accused of a rape. I don't associate with the sort of women that would do such a thing. They're all of a type and some people can almost smell it. I am a very good judge of character if I spend any time with someone. If figure out how their minds work. It is both conscious and unconscious. A lot of it is just obvious and some of it is puzzled out when I get weird signals from people.

      This is not boasting and it is not a unique ability. Most groups have some people... men and women that can just read people. A good group will be one in which abilities and skills are pooled to the common profit. And that means in this case you would need a group that allow people that can read people to warn their friends that something is amiss.

      The point I'm getting to is that I'm not worried personally. I won't be touched. The sort of people that do this sort of thing are not the people I'd be caught alone in a room with much less stick my dick in them.

      My attitudes towards protections of due process are in the common good. For men and women... but more importantly for society.

      The current gender war being pushed by what are ultimately Marxist dupes are damaging gender relations to the determent of society and pushing legal concepts that will ultimately undermine our entire legal system which... if seriously compromised will mean anarchy.

      I am not a MRA... I am an advocate for due process, rationality, reasonableness, and for sufficient peace between the genders that that harmony can sustain society

      I don't care if men are treated like shit and i don't really care if women are treated like shit... My real issue is that the two of them are an effective team that sustains society.

      Birth rates across the west have collapsed. Why is that? I don't know. But this trend coincides quite well with this gender agitation. And it could well lead to cultural, social, and civilizational suicide.

      If it weren't so wide spread, I'd be happy about that... it would be a problem solving itself. But the infection is too widespread... we can't sustain a die off of the scale we're looking at here.

      I hope that makes it clearer where I stand. I am neither an MRA nor a marxist wearing one of their many obvious masks. My interests are the preservation of my civilizaiton as it goes through the last dry heaves of the collapse of communism.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    42. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by KGIII · · Score: 1

      You pretty much hit the nail on the head but I differ in a slight way though I suspect we have the same outcome in mind - I just view it/word it differently. I want equality. I want a merit based society that suits those who are unable to be meritorious. In other words, I want those who can to protect those who can not. This is not communism. I want the same treatment, under the law, as any other person. If I have committed a criminal offense and have been found guilty then I want to pay the same price that I would have paid if I had been another gender, another religion, had a different sexual preference, or a different color and anything else you can imagine to stick in there.

      I have a pithy saying... The problem is that people do not think it through, or perhaps it is not as witty as I think.

      I will accept the validity of the women's liberation movement when I see the NOW down at the courthouse protesting that women get lighter sentences than men for domestic violence offenses.

      I will stop what I am doing, give them help, give them money, and give them access to resources on that day.

      Right now it is not about equality. Right now it is about extra privileges. "If you want money for people that hate..."

      I do, on the other hand, see where you are coming from. No matter how much I may whine and pout the reality is that it is not going to change to be what I want until after the healing has begun. I would say, at this point, we can call it equal and start anew with the benefit for all of humanity as the goal - as equals - but that needs somebody to "lose."

      Hopefully that is clear. There is a lot to say and this is not a topic that I want reply with a novella so I tried to keep it clear. It simply is not worth it, writing a novella that is. Even if it were read it would change absolutely nothing. Fatalist? Realist? Apathetic? D) All of the above? I am not entirely sure what I am anymore. I just know that nothing I can do will have any lasting benefits but I still try to do a little something. Of course this makes me a misogynist and an MRA. Funny, really. I thought I was a Human Rights Activist but it seems asking for equality and personal freedom is bad.

      Example, and closure: I do not think we need more women in tech. No, I do not think there should be special programs to encourage girls to join the STEM fields. I think we should be encouraging people to do what best provides for their needs and makes them the most content. I think we should do that without regard to gender. I think that we should do it without regard to race. I think that everyone should be given a fair chance. As a mixed race heritage person I find Affirmative Action to be an insult. It is saying that I can not do it on my own and need help. I will not be your token nigger. I can do it on my own - meaning I need no extra help. What we should be doing is helping everyone meet their metric of success by providing them with the tools they need to do so. And yes, yes there is going to be a lot of healing before that happens. It may not ever happen and the pendulum will swing anew.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    43. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Most developed justice systems do not operate on the principal of "an eye for an eye". So, the severity of the sentence for the crime the liar accused someone of is taken into account, but not mirrored in their own sentence. It would be an anomaly if it were and probably fall foul of "unusual punishment".

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    44. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If he's an MRA, you're a feminnazi. What's your point? You feminstas have your talking points too ya know- especially emotive subjects like false rape.

    45. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      Some of us are more mature than that and try to take a more grandfatherly view of things.

      No. No human being is without bias. But those who think they are without sin are dangerous because they throw stones with impunity.

      I am a very good judge of character if I spend any time with someone. If figure out how their minds work. It is both conscious and unconscious. A lot of it is just obvious and some of it is puzzled out when I get weird signals from people.

      I suspect that almost everybody believes they are a very good judge of character.

      Real rape and false accusations of rape are both almost always a character misjudgement, because although both of them can happen to random strangers, they are more likely to happen to acquaintances.

      I don't care if men are treated like shit and i don't really care if women are treated like shit

      I'm sorry, that's a "grandfatherly view"?

      Birth rates across the west have collapsed. Why is that? I don't know. But this trend coincides quite well with this gender agitation. And it could well lead to cultural, social, and civilizational suicide.

      Birth rates collapsing aren't a bad thing. More people means we have more "human resources" but that our nonhuman resources have to be divided between more people. We can make arguments about what the optimal rate is, but the optimal population is clearly not infinity humans.

      Also, birth rates have nothing to do with false rape accusations, and only a very dark correlation to actual rapes.

      My interests are the preservation of my civilizaiton as it goes through the last dry heaves of the collapse of communism.

      ...what?

      I really don't know where all this marxism bullshit is coming from. I do understand why you're bringing up MRAs, even though they weren't in this thread before, but then you bring up Marxists, birth rates, and your superhuman (though not unique) ability to smell evil.

      For the record, I agree that the fundamental principles of justice demand innocent-until-proven-guilty in criminal matters, and prosecuting false accusations. Every false accusation of rape is both an assault on the accused -- an attempt to kidnap them and lock them in a cage for years -- and a huge slap in the face of actual rape victims, both ones that got convictions, ones that tried and failed, and ones that went unreported, because it reinforces, legitimately, the notion that their accusation may also be fake.

      However, I have seen no significant evidence presented that there's any particular rash of false rape accusations that is getting "out of hand". I'm open to it but I haven't seen it.

    46. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      See, this is where we differ. You're after justice between the genders. I don't think "justice" applies to that context.

      It is never going to be fair that women have wombs and have to gestate the young. There's no making that even so long as they have to do that.

      Calm down... I'm not making a pro-political 21st feminism argument. I'm saying I don't really care if something is fair for either sex. Things will NOT be fair for either one.

      Some things women just have to deal with... period. Some things men just have to deal with... period.

      There's equality there and there can't be for a lot of reasons that mostly boil down to "we need to do things a certain way or we die out as a species".

      And THAT is my concern. I don't really care what women get or what men get so long as a certain number of babies are squirting out of vaginas on a regular basis.

      Now... that being my primary concern, I'm very flexible with how things are arranged. If women want certain things to keep that happening then accommodations can be made... indifferent to equality. The want MORE than what men get... so long as they keep having children... Fine.

      However, if they don't have children... they're basically not women anymore from the perspective of society. Its a car that doesn't start. Its useless.

      My primary issue with feminism is that they espouse female virtues supposedly while not having children. Utterly f'ing useless.

      And the MRAs are doing the same thing effectively because they're swearing off women and saying they won't be fathers or marry women or raise familiies. Equally f'ing useless.

      Look... I need your dick in a willing vagina that will then about nine months later squirt out a baby... rinse and repeat at least to replacement rates.

      That's my interest and my primary requirement. How that happens is less important to me. Lots of cultures have lots of ways of getting from point A to point B. The boys and girls can work it out amongst themselves so long as it is understood that what is on the table is a NON-dysfunctional relationship between the sexes.

      The real danger here is that if this goes on much longer... our entire civilization is going to win the darwin awards.

      We're basically dodo birds. We've got these very complicated and unreliable courtship rituals that even when they work properly tend to fall apart later... and then there are all sorts of problems with people putting off the kids for careers... basically until the women are practically infertile and our best doctors have to use the latest in medical science to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste of the tube.

      Its a very very stupid situation. At this point, our populations are being sustained almost entirely with immigration. The domestic populations are all dying off rapidly because kids are not being had.

      And the immigrants... they're of different cultures. They might admire our culture or want to be a part of it. But a society with our attrition rate isn't going to survive.

      And THAT is my issue with feminism AND MRAs. The feminists poisoned the gender well and they keep poisoning it. And the MRAs are more interested in their own rights than they are in finding a new normal.

      Allow me to be chauvinistic here for a moment... Men MUST think of the whole society. We built these countries. We built the infrastructure. We wrote the laws. We are capable of being far seeing and magnanimous.

      What I think needs to happen is that the feminists need to be humored long enough to get them away from their little cults and ideally get them into productive consensual happy relationships. After which... we have TIME to deal with the rest of this crap.

      But we really don't have a lot of time before the lack of babies being had starts to fundamentally undermine the integrity of our entire civilization.

      A bit of injustice for a couple generations is fine... a couple generations without babies is death.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    47. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Its not an eye for an eye.

      I'm beyond tired of you strawmanning me, AmiMoJo. Its gotten fucking old.

      The concept here is that someone tried to throw you in a box for 30 years.

      What is the punishment for trying to do that? To lock someone away and steal thirty years of their life?

      Forget the lying. Forget the purgury and the slander.

      Just focus for a moment on what this person ACTUALLY tried to do to you with their lies.

      I'm not punishing them for their lies. I'm punishing them for what they tried to do. And that is a well established legal principle. Attempted assault. attempted murder. attempted kidnapping... etc.

      So what I'm hitting them with are a couple things at once.

      1st... I'm hitting them with the perjury.
      2nd... I'm hitting them with the slander etc. BOTH.
      3rd... I'm hitting them with the attempt to inflict some kind of harm on someone equivalent to the sentence they were attempting to sustain with their lies.

      You add that up and its going to be a lot of lonely years in jail.

      That is what I'm hitting them with... not eye for an eye.

      That doesn't even make sense. Eye for an eye would mean convicting them of rape. I'm not doing that. I'm acknowledging that they TRIED to do something that would have hurt someone and that was extremely illegal. I then citing them for that offense.

      That's all.

      No more strawmen out of you. I've got all the rhetorical napalm in the world... your strawmen will get ashed if you even try it. I've done that every single time to them and I will do it every single time going forward. Everyone sees what you're doing and you're getting cited for this with some regularity.

      Stop it.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    48. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to no one being without sin... I didn't say I was without sin, you trite little punk. Your whole philosophy is something I could have red off the back of a box of crackerjacks.

      Either step up your game... or who can really take this mickey mouse shit seriously?

      I am well aware of my biases sport. But the great civilizations of history were not built by people just looking after their own interests.

      George Washington could have been king. He chose to be a term limited president. Your notions of the limitations of the human mind and soul are childishly simplistic.

      Going over your next quote where you give me another crackerjack response... you sound like this guy:
      https://youtu.be/b5I94bT23cQ?t...

      This this is sad.

      As to grandfatherly views... yes... the wording of it is not old timey and the profanity is likely making you think you have a point. But you don't... because another way of saying what I said is this:

      "Life isn't fair. We all have our own burdens and we all have our own problems. We all have to make the best of the situation and muddle through as best we can."

      How does that strike you? Same fucking concept which you'd know if you didn't have your head completely up your own ass.

      As to marxism, it is related to modern feminism... the brain trust of the modern academic feminist movement is entirely marxist feminists... self described. I don't even have to label them that. That is how they label themselves.

      As to MRA, I didn't bring that up. I was accused of being an MRA and then some other person that is an MRA said something positive about MRAs... I did not bring up MRAs.

      As to current accusations getting out of hand... its dominated the media in various forms for about a year. You apparently don't read the news.

      --
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    49. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Magius_AR · · Score: 1

      Dude, you're nuts if you think we have an underpopulation problem on this planet.

    50. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Its not a question of the planet. Most of the planet isn't feminists is it?

      And what survives of our culture and our civilization if we all die out and are replaced by people from where ever?

      If we could assimilate them as fast as they were coming then... maybe. But we can't. And even the systems in our society that were designed to do just that have been sabotaged by the whole multiculturalism movement that basically says it is discriminatory to expect people that immigrate to your country to adopt your culture. Never mind that every other country on earth has that as core expectation of anyone that immigrates.

      The western world DOES have a huge under population issue. Italy is basically dying out and it is not alone. Replacing everyone in europe with North Africans and people from the middle east means France is GONE. Sweden is GONE. Italy is GONE. etc. You either have a core majority in each of those countries that can at least sustain replacement or they're all gone.

      And Japan is going through a similar problem. Their population is crashing. Their are villages that are ghost towns all over the place. Don't be fooled by the people living in increasingly tiny apartments in Tokyo. If you squeeze the whole population into a couple cities you'll have a shadow of the population that they had when it was spread out.

      This is an issue throughout the Western Hegemony. Our entire super civilization... the whole first world is doing this to itself right now. And it is not sustainable.

      --
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    51. Re: All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. I dated one of those women. Her mother was an abusive drunk while her father took it cause he knew he'd be the one to get locked up if he fought back. This girl was a pathological liar. For example, she tried to convince me she aborted my child 2 years before I met her. Then completely flipped out when i called her out on it. 16 years later, she still texts me every few months to try and mess with me. It's a superiority complex, I believe. Messing with other's lives for your own entertainment.

    52. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      The inquisition did this. When they came to a town they asked their future victims for their mortal enemies. If a person on the mortal enemy list accused them of anything, the mortal enemy got the punishment.

      I doubt your method has legs. Just look at the tiny percentage of perjury convictions compared to the amount of lying under oath that is happening.

    53. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up. A very reasonable series of arguments which flushed out the respondent whose language deteriorated in his response.

    54. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      Karmashock, in essence your many posts on this thread are about lies and it seems a lie that is particularly hurtful to you. Being at the receiving end of a well aimed, credible lie is one of the worst experiences one can go through.

    55. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      2 incompatible statements :

      I am more familiar with western philosophy, legal tradition, and culture going back thousands of years than you would probably realize it.

      They tried to get someone kidnapped and kept in a cell for 30 years. Imagine if I just grabbed you and threw you in a cell. What would the sentence for that be? Again... at least 30 years of me in being in a cell, no?

      Good luck with your boasting of "familiarity", but you are woefully ignorant of about last century of western legal tradition.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    56. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Your response deserves a longer response than this but I have to say that I disagree. That is not what I want. What I want is equality - that has absolutely nothing to do with being fair in my views. I want equality in the eyes of the law. We can argue what the law should be but I want it universally enforced regardless of inborn traits. Society and social contracts have nothing to do with that in my view. You could call it "fair" but I do not view it as that.

      I do not think a business should hire a female instead of a male. I think that they should be able to hire the most meritorious applicant who is most likely to fill the role they are being hired for. I do not think there should be protected classes. I think cases should be looked at individually. I also think society is suffering from information overload but that is another topic.

      Anyhow, I think I see what you mean by needing greater populations. I am not sure if we have reached that point but, then again, my timing could be way off and my finger is "off the pulse" of society today because I have, pretty much, moved outside of it and try to not look too deeply in.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    57. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Translation: "Oh shit he's got me. I better make up an excuse as to why I won't engage in this discussion, as I will lose."

    58. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by dave420 · · Score: 1

      The problem is your "but what of the false rape claims" is like arresting someone on the deck of the sinking Titanic for murder. Yes, it's a real problem, but absolutely dwarfed by another, related aspect. I think the problem is that you sounded precisely like an MRA, focussing on the noise instead of the very loud signal. You are right, but when there are still such hideous amount of rapes, one has to choose their language very carefully to differentiate their position from that of an MRA.

    59. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Are you American? If so, then you can't complain about your culture being fucked up. That boat has sailed. It is no longer yours to complain about, as it was founded on attempted genocide and the subjugation of others. The rest of your rant is simple xenophobic emotional screeching from the rooftops. Impressive rhetoric but absolutely nothing to do with reality. "France is GONE" "Sweden is GONE" really??

    60. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it's a real problem, but absolutely dwarfed by another, related aspect.

      Pot, meet kettle. First world feminist problems are dwarfed by third world feminist problems. Yet most first world feminists focus their attention on their little part of the world.

      I think the problem is that you sounded precisely like an MRA

      In other words, "it's her problem that she dressed like a slut"

      when there are still such hideous amount of rapes, one has to choose their language very carefully

      Again, "she should've choose her dress very carefully"

      You sound more like one of them MRAs you beat up against than him.

    61. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to me sounding like something... This is more pathetic ad hominem on your part. If you're personally unable to have an honest discussion without devolving immediately to identity politics then you're incompetent to have this discussion - period. Your brand of rhetoric has grown tiresome and I think you're even starting to realize that I am far from alone in having no patience for it.

      Understand me. If you want to have a real discussion. I am here. if you want to play identity politics games.. I will blow through your argument like a freight train through a paper mache float parade.

      The ad hominems are useless. You can't use them against me. And if that's all you've got... you'll have nothing. And I will be utterly without mercy in ripping your argument apart.

      Last chance. Make an argument.

      I am not an MRA. I explained that above.

      Even if I were an MRA, and I am not, but even if I were, it would not give you the ability to invalidate my position.

      Feminists and MRAs are two sides of the same coin. The one judging the other is laughable. I represent neither. If can't grasp that there are view points out side of your cartoonish dichotomies then you've got no hope of sustaining an argument against anyone with a mature position.

      --
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    62. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      That's fine... you want equality before the law... I think that's fine in theory but it isn't my primary requirement. If one sex or the other didn't have equality but gender relations were stable and both genders were doing their jobs... I would take that as better than if there were equality but the relationship were poisoned.

      As to populations... We're dealing with something that moves over decades. Most people can't deal with things that move more slowly than a few years at most. To follow the patterns of generations you must see things in terms of generations... in blocks of time about 30 years each.

      Its already very bad... and its getting worse. We are running out of time. The only thing keeping us going at this point is immigration. And that is a stop gap. It won't help us in the long run at this rate. If we can increase our own population replacement a bit and slow the immigration a bit... then it will be fine. The internal population replacement rate doesn't have to be 100 percent. But it can't be 50 percent. That's too low.

      --
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    63. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Every culture on earth has unforgivable sins in its past.

      The mark of society is not being without sin for we are all sinners.

      The mark of a society is what it builds and what it does in the world.

      You sit in front of a computer with an Intel or AMD processor... using windows or macos or linux... running a browser likely written in the US... firefox or chrome or something.

      And you sign into a US tech message board and tell me American culture is irredeemable?

      We built the modern world, insect. If you don't appreciate what we've done then do my a favor and try to live a week without anything we invented for provided for you.

      Literally HALF of all the inventions in the last 120 or so years have all been patented by Americans.

      You say we are irredeemable? Who is better?

      Cite a nation and I'll thumb through the histories to find their sins. And keep in mind that the sins of a nation are relative to its power. tiny countries with no power are not going to genocide continents because they can't... even if they want to.

      What country are you from, little flea? Cite your nation of origin. I will cite your sins and then by your own logic you'll have to admit your culture is unsalvagable.

      Or admit you're an illogical lackwitted hypocrite.

      Which of course... is merely a matter of time since that is a forgone conclusion. Your argument is a trite one. I've seen it many times and it always hides the same bitterness born of indoctrination and bitterness. You are pitiable. But please... answer my questions so you know what I say for the truth it is.

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    64. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Not really. I'm not the sort of person that obsesses about the tools used to do a thing. I don't care about guns for example because I don't think guns cause crime. I think they are TOOLS used by criminals.

      In this case, we're talking about lies being used as tools. But I don't care about the lies themselves. I care about the intent behind them. If your intention is to lock someone away for 30 years... I don't really care what tool you wanted to use to do that. A roll of duct tape and a shotgun against the head... or a lie. The intent is the crime not the tool.

      As to a lie hurting me... I've rarely been personally hurt by lies actually. I'm very good at not giving dishonest people leverage over me. It has happened to friends and family though. Only so much you can do.

      As to bad experiences... what makes a lie harmful is the harm the lie causes. There is nothing special about lies. It is just a tool. A means to an end.

      What hurts is the intent. If someone lies to spare my feelings or help me that doesn't hurt.

      If someone lies to hurt me.. THAT hurts because they had the intent to hurt me. Do you understand?

      The lie is just a means... like this pencil:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      The meaning is the intent.

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    65. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I am not. If you have a case to make, then make it.

      the intent to harm someone is the crime. Not the means.

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    66. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judges don't give one flying fuck about perjury. Not. One. Flying. Fuck.

    67. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I've made the case of your woeful ignorance of western law. If "I am not" is the best defense you've got, that's not much.

        What else do you want? I don't want to humiliate you any more.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    68. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      No you didn't. You quoted me and then said that constituted all the proof required. What I said was never in dispute.

      You have not actually made an argument here.

      Lets say we were in a court case... would you simply be expected to cite something and then rest your case? You think you're going to prove anything that way? Obviously not.

      So why don't you ACTUALLY make a real argument. I'm waiting.

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    69. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      If I try to murder somebody and fail, then I'm still going behind bars for quite a few years, but much less than if I'd succeeded. Similarly, if I try to frame somebody for murder, and fail, I wouldn't pay the same penalty.

      However, as AmiMojo points out, severity of punishment really isn't much of a deterrent effect, so just slapping on the years is not going to accomplish anything useful. If the liar tries again, he or she will have the conviction to demonstrate previous lying.

      The big problem is getting the conviction at all. Conviction is (or at least should be) proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In cases like the woman who claimed sexual assault when she demonstrably was lying, that's easy. In the general case, that's hard. If two people have sex, and one claims rape, if there's no solid evidence one way or the other (and rape cases are really troublesome this way) both are going to walk. Even in the case of a witness giving a false report, unless there's solid evidence that the witness wasn't mistaken (and eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable) there's no conviction.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    70. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      How do you establish that a rape claim was false? In the case in TFS, it became clear that no sexual assault in fact took place. Now, imagine a case where a man and woman have sex together and the woman claims rape.

      There might be solid evidence that the sex was consensual or that it was forced. There likely isn't, and in that case you can't tell whether the accusation was false or not. There's also possible misunderstandings. Say that the man gets a little aggressive, asking for more than he's getting, and the woman feels intimidated - or, to complicate this further, wasn't that averse to sex with the guy (the two women who filed complaints about Assange are examples). There's going to be a whole lot of cases where the authorities can't tell if rape occurred.

      Moreover, the evidence adduced for rape happening is a statistical collection of information, while Karmashock's evidence of false accusations was scattered media reports, which are almost worthless in establishing how often something happens.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    71. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      I made it long ago - "In most jurisdictions except in middle east, law does a lot less to the criminal than the criminal did to his victim".

      If you don't know this one, read some "law for dummies" about a civilized country, preferably with pictures, because dummy you are for sure.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    72. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Either way... these goofballs are at their zenith already. Its all down hill from here.

      You're not nearly cynical enough. This crap has been going on longer than either of us have been alive, and will continue long after we're both dead.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    73. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      as to the equviliency of sentences... If you serve a lower sentence for attempted murder than successful murder, then so be it. Simply cite the person for that and have them serve the time. However this is not simply perjury or lying or slander. This is an attempted assault on someone else.

      if you can prove they did that in court with intent to harm someone, then they should be held accountable for that attempted harm, the subversion of the court, and the perjury.

      If you're okay with that then we are in agreement.

      As to the difficulty of proving rape, that is not an argument for lowing the burden of evidence. That simply notes that the crime is subjective and evidence is difficult to come by.

      Historically there were different ways of dealing with this problem.

      100 years ago in the US, it was understood that a young lady was not to be alone with a young man. And if she were so by her own consent then that was largely taken as consent should the issue come to trial and there not be evidence of a struggle.

      For this reason if a young woman was to be with a young man, she would either have that meeting happen in a public place or do so with friends that could validate her story if something happened.

      The problem you're having now is that young women are spending time alone with young men and there is no presumption of sexual intimacy in that. Which historically there would be.

      The old rules whatever you might think of them, dealt with the problem. Islam of course has its own solution which is typically useless... the whole X numbers of male witnesses or whatever which is a stupid rule.

      In the West, the old rule we used to have was that young ladies did not spend time ALONE with young men that they were not intent on a sexual relationship with in the first place.

      Now, unless you're willing to bring back rules like that, the problem you're going to run into here is that you're trying to prove things that you don't have the evidence to actually prove.

      And the burden of proof is on the accuser.

      So you sort it out. How do you want to move forward here? I'm open to any solution you want to propose. But if your solution is reversing basic legal precedent and having the accused bear the burden of proof... I don't see why that is a good idea.

      You'd create an atmosphere of fear where sociopathic women could dominate men simply by making specious rape claims.

      My primary problem with that is not the injustice of it. As I said to other people, I am not an MRA. My issue is not male rights. My issue is rather that that atmosphere of fear further poisons male/female relations which will depress the birth rate further... and cause the sexes to have less social contact than they already do.

      The problem I have with so many of these ideas is that they're unaware of the unintended consequences or the scope of the issue in which they're operating. If your intention is to make rape either a less common crime than it is... and it is a generally uncommon crime when compared to other types of crime or the population in general. But if you want to make it less common still... and you want women to feel comfortable to make the claim... etc.

      Certain proactive steps need to be take on the part of women and those that educate women so that they deal with this situation in a more responsible and productive manner.

      The current methods clearly are creating confusion more than anything. The whole "teach men not to rape" campaign was comically naive.

      So you tell me... how do you want to deal with this?

      Forget what other people in the thread said. I'm not interested in people brigading to give false legitimacy to a point simply because two or three people agree with something on a given forum against one. That's no indication of political popularity or the inherent wisdom of the argument.

      Just on your own two feet... tell me what you agree with, disagree with, and how you would address the problem in so far as you see one?

      --
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    74. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Falling birth rates seem to be linked to increasing wealth, better medical care, and female education of any sort, last I looked. However, Western birth rates are at least close to replacement level, so I don't see any reason to worry at this point.

      Were this a US thing, I'd suggest that making it financially easier to have a kid might raise the birth rate, but lots of European countries support mothers much more than we do, and they don't have higher birth rates. I do suspect there are ways to encourage having children that will work in the unlikely event that this turns into a crisis.

      I'm pretty sure it wasn't caused by feminist propaganda.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    75. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1

      One of the more positive things that has happened recently is that they got starved for victims so they started attacking their own political camps. They were basically doing purity tests. Once everyone is a liberal how do they justify their existence? well... they then ask "how liberal are you"... and they just start goal posting moving to make sure they have enough people to be outraged with at any given time.

      So anyway, they were doing that and eventually they hit a segment of their own political contingent that fought back. And now they're a little baffled because a lot of the wind has gone out of their sails. They're getting attacked from all sides now and they're losing credibility rapidly.

      Its funny because they're such dogmatic robots that they don't really understand what happened.

      We'll see... they'll either be suppressed to the general good of society or they'll osterize most of their political base which will lead to a structural schism in the faction which will weaken them collectively.

      Hit. Nail. Head. I wish I had mod points today. What's happening with liberalism today is a case study in self destruction. All we need to do is sit back and watch it play out.

      Like those ideological purity tests...if we started measuring conservatives on the basis of how conservative are you, it would surely mark the beginning of the end. Liberal purity tests have pushed their kind so far to the extreme, they're now attacking themselves. And their tactic of keeping one constituency or another outraged at any given time has totally backfired.

      I don't really blame liberals for being baffled. They've spent so much time in an echo chamber, they've lost touch. When reality finally slaps them in the face, it is only natural for them to try to figure out what happened. The question is, do they have the capability to make the necessary changes in order to correct their course?

      Somehow I doubt it. Liberals are so

    76. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

      ???

      I agree with everything you said. If you somehow disagree with something I said, I'm not seeing it in your post.

    77. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      No.

      We've had past events of increased wealth that didn't correspond to falling birth rates... same thing for medicine etc.

      Female education is somewhat linked... anything that upsets the gender status quo can effect that.

      The Spartans had a similar issue... they are known for having a very liberal attitude towards female equality... their society ultimately was crushed by larger population of Thebes. The Spartans are known for being quite excellent soldiers. The Thebes are less well known but their stock and trade was agriculture. Farmers. The Spartans came demanding tribute. And the response from Thebes was basically just to swam the Spartans and destroyed them.

      Appreciate, I am a 21st century western man. I believe in female equality as much as anyone else in my society. However, I am also gifted and cursed with an ability and a need to see beyond myself and to see things in a wider perspective.

      The problem is that whatever your moral beliefs there are imperatives. Certain things MUST happen. And if they don't... the society dies.

      So long as the birth rates are reasonable, we can maintain the status quo. If they do not improve however... the society will collapse or get supplanted through immigration... and whatever either of us believes will be irrelevant because we'll be dead and there will be no one to carry on after us.

      Think. You are arguing with the Sun, the Moon, waters, and the winds.

      These things don't care what you believe. We are all insects under the heavens. If we do not improve the birth rate our society dies and other cultures will absorb our territory, our technology, and rewrite our history.

      Islam for example appears to be well positioned to inherent everything we've built. You are I am sure quite aware of the values of Islam regarding women? That is the very likely future for most of europe at this point.

      For the US... we're more likely to adopt a south American Catholic perspective... also not especially friendly to your views or mine.

      This rift between our camps is destroying our society... it is time to stop being petty children... and take some responsibility for what must happen.

      As to your sad attempt to introduce socialism as the solution... it isn't working in Sweden. For all your subsidies, you're not improving the situation.

      Why is that? Because your subsidies are all about supporting SINGLE mothers. Unattached women don't want to have children in the first place. That isn't an ideal situation to sit there on government welfare raising your child in a single parent household.

      No amount of subsidies is going to resolve that situation.

      The homes that produce replacement levels of well adjusted children that go to school and attain something in their lives are not the families you seem to want to be the future. That's just a fact. Cross reference the prison population with singe parent house holds. You'll find that the overwhelming majority of the prison population comes from such house holds.

      Cross reference kids that don't graduate high school with single parent house holds. Again the overwhelming majority... etc.

      You're breeding failure. We don't just need numbers or the immigration would be able to deal with it. We need socialized upwardly mobile adults. And by socialized, I mean socialized into our society. Not just any random jackass from anywhere in the world. That isn't going to be helpful.

      Get the fuck out of your mental box... and think outside of it for a moment. Try. Just TRY to think outside that box.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    78. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Oh I know.

      I am a great fan of Diogenes... some would say the father of western philosophy. And... his antics were largely involved with dealing with societies that had been taken over by such people.

      The Sophists... or in English "The Wise"... they ruled the thoughts and thinking and discussions of their day. And it took the Cynics and the Stoics to break them.

      From the Cynics we learn true introspection. Real consideration. Real thought. And from the Stoics we have gotten things like Science... true clear reason.

      But the war of the mind is never over. The sophists were never completely destroyed and they thrive quite comfortably in politics, certain portions of academia, a fair portion of the legal profession, etc.

      It is the cynic that stands naked before the man in silks, titles, and gold bangles... and says "you're a liar and you know you're a liar"

      And it is the stoic that stands before mystics, the moralists, the holy men, and says "not only are you not holy or divine but you're also an idiot."

      These are the intellectual traditions I value. I know the struggle will never end.

      But the Sophists are parasites. They breed, they infect, they corrupt... but they do not strengthen or improve things. They drain the strength out of everything they touch.

      And eventually their corruption destroys anyone stupid enough to support them. We see this throughout the western world.

      Look at all the communities... poor communities... promised success... promised jobs... promised education... and that they were promised 30 or 50 years ago... and in that time they've only grown poorer, jobs have become scarcer, education standards have slipped farther and farther, crime has gotten out of control...

      You can spot the parasites without even having to pay much attention but looking for the rot rather than the people spreading it. Then you just follow the corruption inward.

      --
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    79. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      That is no where a requirement of any western code of law so much as a tendency.

      What is more, you are ignoring that what is "western" law extends back in time quite a bit farther than you appear to be aware. Consider the Romans for example. A quite valid citation as a lot of modern western law is based on Roman legal concepts.

      And while i don't hold them as having the best legal system for a lot of reasons, they were not a stupid people.

      And you can't get any more Western than the WESTERN Roman empire.

      --
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    80. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1
      Interesting post. I have a couple of simple questions regarding a few of your comments:

      The Spartans had a similar issue... they are known for having a very liberal attitude towards female equality... their society ultimately was crushed by larger population of Thebes.

      Are you saying Thebes' superior numbers screwed Spartan society, or you saying it was Sparta's gender equality?

      So long as the birth rates are reasonable, we can maintain the status quo.

      Whose birthrates? Who is the "we" you are talking about?

      For the US... we're more likely to adopt a south American Catholic perspective... also not especially friendly to your views or mine.

      What views do you hold that South American Catholics might find objectionable?

      This rift between our camps is destroying our society... it is time to stop being petty children... and take some responsibility for what must happen.

      What is it you think must happen? Who is supposed to take responsibility for getting it done?

      Thanks in advance for your considered reply!

    81. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      woefully ignorant of about last century of western legal tradition

      Glad that you are accepting that your comment amounts to complaining about WESTERN Roman empire TODAY.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    82. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      No. I validated my position. Your snarky comments are not a rebuttal. You're just showing that you're stubborn... which is not a good quality.

      --
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    83. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to Thebes, the issue was the low population growth rate of Sparta. They were just barely able to meet population replacement rates which is unacceptable in a warrior culture that suffers attrition from battles.

      What happened in those battles is that you'd form a battle line... a shield wall. And on the right you'd have your newbs and on the left you'd have your veterans... or it was the other way around. I forget. But there was a convention.

      The idea was that the worst fighters of either side would fight the best fighters of the opposing side. This would cause the battle line to WHEEL as the better fighters on both sides chewed into the newbies.

      Nearly all deaths were suffered from inexperienced fighters not just because they were inexperienced but because they were fighting people completely out of their skill class.

      Thebes decided to do something different. They put their best fighters against the best fighters of Sparta and their shitty fighters against the shitty fighters from Sparta.

      They also sent about 10 times as may people to the fight as Sparta.

      The Spartans were better... they gave better than they got. But they were out numbered and their best fighters were fighting the best Thebes had to offer. Thebes was not as good... but by putting the best against the best... the Thebans didn't break. It was common for one side at a certain point to run away. Well... the Veterans weren't running away. And they were keeping the Spartan elite busy.

      The result was that the Spartan army was basically wiped out to the last man.

      And the Spartan's couldn't recover. The Thebans invaded their territory and freed the slaves the Spartans used to do everything in their society. Sparta was very much a slave culture. Slaves farmed, cooked, cleaned, built things... everything but fight and rule.

      Well... the cream of the Spartan elite destroyed and their slaves freed and gone... Sparta never recovered.

      Had Sparta had greater numbers... everything would have been different.

      Why one society has numbers and another doesn't doesn't really matter to me. You just need to have them.

      If you don't have the numbers you're going to have problems that aren't going to be solved by wealth or technology or skill. Look at the Spartans... they could kill their enemies at horrifying ratios in most cases. Impossibly small numbers of Spartans could kill much larger forces. But it wasn't enough.

      They were crushed by farmers with little more than weight of numbers.

      --
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    84. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to birth rates, those born and socialized into our culture. I believe you're fishing for me to make a racist comment. You'll not find it. I am not racist. I don't care what color people are... My issue is what society you were socialized into.

      If those socialized into my culture die out and are replaced by another culture... then my culture dies.

      And that is the same culture that gives so much a rat fart about feminism or female liberation. If my society falls... what replaces it will not care about these things to any great extent.

      Islam is looking to replace most of Europe and south American Catholicism is looking to replace the US. Neither cultural group takes this political correctness shit seriously... at all.

      As to what I find objectionable about south american Catholicism... what do the japanese find objectionable about chinese culture? Would you say it was racist if the Japanese wanted to maintain their culture instead of having it annihilated by chinese culture?

      Its the same thing. I'm growing tired of you transparent attempts to find some political correctness violation I've made. Its not intellectually meaningful.

      As to what must be done... we must stop using gender relations and family relations as political weapons against each other. We have poisoned the field that grows our grain with the rotting bodies of past battles.

      The fields stink with the rotting dead of a thousand skirmishes. It must stop. Certain things must be left alone. Using gender relations as a political weapon for short term political advantage is coming at the price of poisoning gender relations in general which damages our ability to sustain ourselves as a society at all.

      The only demographics that are doing okay in this are the ones that utterly ignore the discussion.

      The religious groups are breeding. And the various foreign cultures that immigrate and don't take the gender discussion seriously are breeding.

      Everyone else is not. The facts are self evident in the statistics. We are in the middle of a hegemony wide population crash. The whole first world is not reproducing. Countries with tight immigration have rapidly declining populations and countries with permissive immigration are getting subsumed.

      --
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    85. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      It didn't validate your position in any relevant way because :

      1. Your original point was about the present, not a distant past

      2. My dispute was also about the last century of western law practice, as I mentioned adequately in my initial post about it.

      I prefer my stubborn and right to your stubborn and wilfully-ignorant-even-after-proven-wrong.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    86. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1

      As to birth rates, those born and socialized into our culture. I believe you're fishing for me to make a racist comment. You'll not find it. I am not racist. I don't care what color people are... My issue is what society you were socialized into.

      If those socialized into my culture die out and are replaced by another culture... then my culture dies.

      Racism? Race isn't the same thing as culture, and I have no problem with people defending their culture. I'm just asking you to identify the culture you're defending.

      As to what I find objectionable about south american Catholicism...

      I didn't ask what you find objectionable, I asked what views you hold that they might find objectionable. Here's your quote: "...south American Catholic perspective... also not especially friendly to your views or mine. I'm reading that as you saying you hold views that S. American Catholics might not like. Am I mistaken?

      I'm growing tired of you transparent attempts to find some political correctness violation I've made.

      What attempts? I made one post. All I asked you to do was clarify a few of your statements. If you think I'm attacking you, you're seeing things that aren't there.

      The only demographics that are doing okay in this are the ones that utterly ignore the discussion.

      The religious groups are breeding. And the various foreign cultures that immigrate and don't take the gender discussion seriously are breeding.

      So if I understand you correctly, your culture is not religious/not breeding, and it is being subsumed by other cultures that are religious and breeding. Further, a major reason that your culture is not breeding is that it uses "gender relations and family relations as political weapons" against itself, whereas the other cultures do not. If your culture would stop the gender/family attacks within itself, it's birthrates would rise enough to match or exceed those of other cultures - thereby protecting itself from dying off. Is that correct?

      If not, it might be helpful to move the discussion forward if you would simply identify your culture.

    87. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to which culture I'm presuming to defend... basically every culture in the first world. They're all endangered.

      Everything in western europe, the Japanese are in trouble, the Israelis are in trouble, the US is in trouble, Canada is likely in trouble though I am unaware of their statistics so that is just an assumption.

      From what I've seen... nearly every nation in the first world is suffering some version of this.

      Specifically I am American... but my worry here is not just for the US. Its the entire first world.

      As to objectionable qualities... this is not a useful question because one doesn't simply hold or not hold the views a culture because you find it to be or not to be objectionable. I don't find Buddhism to be objectionable but I am not a Buddhist. It is not required for someone to find something objectionable to simply not embrace it.

      As to what I preceive as you fishing for a PC violation... I could be overly sensitive there. If so, I appologise. I exist in a very PC environment and people are constantly trying to find ways to declare me "unclean" using that system. As a survival instinct, I assume anything that could bait me down such a line to be intentional. I am very very very rarely wrong about that... it is confirmed for me with regularity because when I don't give them what they want, they get frustrated, and ask more obvious questions.

      If I am wrong in your case, then know I mean no offense to you. This is simply a consequence of the ideological and moral conflicts in my society at this point.

      As to my culture... the west has religious components but the First world is in general pretty atheistic or if you prefer "lapse-religious"... You can cross reference the various religious denominations with birth rates and there are very clear patterns.

      As to why we have problems, yes... gender relations are used as political weapons and it results in poisoning gender relations in general which damages the ability of people in my culture to form relationships, start families, have the confidence to have children, and remain together long enough to socialize them into our culture.

      As to what you think of vagueness... I think you were merely confused by the scope of my position. I'm not referring to just one culture. I'm referring to the entire first world. This is a Hegemony wide issue.

      --
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    88. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      1. No, I cited a knowledge of western history and law. Your misunderstanding on that issue is fine... but now that you've been corrected you must adapt your argument. Refusing to acknowledge correction is merely stubbornness.

      2. As to the "last century" the argument you're making is "we don't do things this exact way so your comments about wanting to change something are invalid"... This is a very lazy argument. You're saying I can't do something a given way because we don't do things that given way. By this logic we couldn't change any law or change any practice because prior to the change you could make the argument that things are not done that way.

      Of course things are not doing X way... if they were I would not presume to change them... would I?

      Be rational. Take sip of coffee... splash some water on your face... and wake up.

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    89. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1
      Thanks for your post - there's a lot of good information there.

      As to Thebes, the issue was the low population growth rate of Sparta. They were just barely able to meet population replacement rates which is unacceptable in a warrior culture that suffers attrition from battles.

      I've searched and searched and I can't find any population data on Sparta vs Thebes around the time of the Battle of Leuctra (which I understand marks the fall of Sparta). Where are you getting your population information?

      They also sent about 10 times as may people to the fight as Sparta."

      Had Sparta had greater numbers... everything would have been different.

      The information I have on the Battle of Leuctra indicates Sparta fielded 10,000–11,000 hoplites and 1000 cavalry, while Boeotians led by Thebes fielded 6,000–7,000 hoplites and 1,500 cavalry. I can't find any mention of farmer/slave soldiers in either army, and Sparta in fact outnumbered the Boeotians. Were there other decisive battles where Theban non-professional forces greatly outnumbered the Spartans?

      I've also found that Sparta dominated the region after the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404 BC. Sparta fell to Thebes only 33 years later. Did Spartan birthrates fall that dramatically in the space of a generation?

      Why one society has numbers and another doesn't doesn't really matter to me.

      Wait...you said earlier that the Spartans had a very liberal attitude towards female equality, which was a factor in their society ultimately being crushed by the larger population of Thebes. I thought the "why" of Sparta's population disadvantage was one of your main points. Is this not the case?

      They were crushed by farmers with little more than weight of numbers.

      Interesting...but like I said, I can't find any mention of farmers/slaves of consequential numbers in either army. Obviously, you're getting your numbers from somewhere. I'd appreciate if you could point me in the right direction.

      In any case, I'm finding that I'm learning quite a bit about Greek city states during that time period, so it's all good.

    90. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      As to where I got my knowledge of Sparta's population... I had a very comprehensive classical education so I was subjected to a lot of information about the ancient world... especially the western ancient world.

      As to specific citations... I'm remembering this out of lectures and textbooks from decades ago. I didn't get this off the internet.

      What is known is that the spartan elite despite not having to work, despite being able to have as many children really as they wanted because their culture was sustained by a slave underclass.... the population of the spartan elite was relatively small.

      We're talking about a number less than 20 thousand total. With perhaps 10 thousand actually able to fight at any time. That's not that many.

      And given Sparta's territory, wealth, etc... they should have had a larger population. What is more, losing one battle should not have broken them. They could not replace their losses. That's a fact.

      Now if you look at population figures from that period of time you'll see it was not unusual for women to be having 8 or more children during their life times. Take into consideration high infant mortality rates and the numbers fall down to an effective population replacement rate of about twice the current population. Which means you could in most places lose HALF your population every generation so long as they were the right people... and it was survivable.

      We have evidence from Iron Age Europe that attrition rates were often as high as 70 percent per generation to VIOLENCE. Not disease or famine... 70 percent of the male population in some Iron age settlements was SUSTAINED at 70 percent per generation.

      You can't sustain that without a high birth rate.

      And that was sustained. Sparta could not sustain it.

      We also have population numbers from Athens... they had a very different notion of how things worked between the sexes... and their populations figures were about six to seven times the size of spartas... at least. The population difference could have been more extreme. Its hard to know really.

      Anyway, Sparta is understood to have had a relatively small population. Where as most of the other greek tribes were significantly more numerous. The issue was that if you fought the Spartans in the traditional way... they would fucking kill everyone. What Thebes did was sacrifice the cream of their own warrior caste to destroy the cream of the Spartan warrior caste. And Thebes could replace their losses... and Sparta could not.

      As to the battle itself... the numbers are hard to pin down. What we do know is that the population in thebes exceeded the population in sparta... especially of the spartan military elite... you can't include the slaves in the population of sparta since they didn't undergo spartan training. Where as the Thebens had a less stratified society. Their entire population could be considered Theben.

      This is an interesting little video on the battle:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Most sources I'm seeing are showing heavier numbers from sparta but that is simply conflating all the infantry together. They're not all the same.

      The tradition was for the veterans of both sides to fight the neophytes of the other. What you can see from that video is that they were not clearly concentrating their forces to break the Spartan line. What I remember about the battle was that the Thebens intentionally put their best against the spartan best against tradition and then stacked the ranks deep so that even if the spartan best was killing their best at a superior ratio... they'd just overwhelm that core with numbers.

      What is important here is to understand that the spartan elite was not replaceable at those rates. They could not take body blows like that. They were like the French Imperial Guard. When Napoleon's imperial guard retreated... he knew he had lost. They were not replaceable.

      The difference is that the spartan elite was MADE while th

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    91. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1

      Thanks taking the time to compose a very informative post. Learned a lot today about Sparta, Thebes and classical Greece in general thanks to you. Anywho, After more searching, I was able to find several sources confirming your observations on Spartan populations at the time of their fall.

      I do however think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the Spartan's decline in population was a result of their more liberal attitudes towards women. The most oft cited reasons I found for the decline of Sparta's population was it's practice of eugenics and male losses due to war.

      I did find, however, a few sources mentioning gender strife in Sparta. Although they didn't specifically mention any effect on birth rates, certainly one could see how particular Spartan laws - especially those regarding female inheritance/property ownership - could be a significant source of conflict between the sexes.

      Again, thanks for the info. I look forward to further discussion on threats to first world cultures in our other thread.

    92. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I don't know why Sparta had a population problem. I know that they were different from the Athenians and the Thebens that had a more classically conventional gender role structure... and those societies were pumping out the kids like crazy.

      What I can show is correlation. Causation?... No. I don't think causation in that case is even possible to prove really.

      However, look at the entire First World. We have a population trend going on here and there is very little to explain it except for that.

      Appreciate... I WANT women to have really whatever they want.

      However... if that leads to the ruin of my civilization and ultimately women losing all that stuff anyway when the civiliation collapses... then what is the point? Better to shift to something sustainable where at least we'll be able to bias the system to be a generous towards women as possible.

      And again... this is only temporary. In 100 years it won't matter. Our life expectancies are going to go vertical on the graph and you won't even need women to produce children anymore. The whole biological role thing can be bypassed entirely.

      Here is something I believe.

      I think human beings are the third phase in life on earth.

      First phase: Random mutation.
      Second phase: Sexual selection.
      Third phase: Intelligent design.

      I think humans are the third phase. I think we are as big a step on the ladder of life as the Cambrian explosion.

      But only certain civilizations are even going to be capable of doing anything with it. The stupid islamists are making ignorance into a virtue. The Chinese are mostly concerned with maintaining the power and authority of their oligarchy. And... really in the end the south american Catholics will probably be pretty solid in the end... I think they're chaotic and shortsighted. But something could rise out of that to replace us. It will just waste a lot of time.

      We're so fucking close. Think of where we'd be today if Rome never fell. Rome was on the cusp of the industrial revolution before they fell. They had steam power, water wheels, simple mechanical computers. We could have landed on the moon a thousand years ago. We're a hundred years off from solving so many of our problems. We just need to buy a little time.

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    93. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have a population trend going on here and there is very little to explain it except for that.

      Except for what? A move away from what you call a "classically conventional gender role structure" where women are relegated to a subordinate role in society? You honestly can't think of any other reasonable explanations for a decline in birth rates?

      I think human beings are the third phase in life on earth.

      First phase: Random mutation. Second phase: Sexual selection. Third phase: Intelligent design.

      Yeah, you might want to rethink your little scheme. You really don't leave any room for natural selection (besides sexual selection)? And no, random mutation and natural selection are not the same thing.

    94. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      History and law includes law. Law includes last century of law, at least includes current law. In which you woefully misinformed as I pointed out. Then how does citing Roman law validate any of your statements?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    95. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      it also includes more than that. Your presumption that you can arbitarily limit the scope of my comment against my clear intentions is inherently dishonest.

      Stop attempting to save you still born argument by strawmanning me.

      Your argument is dead. It never lived. It is a blue shriveled tragedy. Wrap it in blankets and burn it.

      Let it go. You made a mistake. I did not.

      For the future, know that I quite good at this... assume competence on my part. You'll put your foot in your mouth less in the future.

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    96. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      However, Western birth rates are at least close to replacement level, so I don't see any reason to worry at this point.

      You must be joking! Much of Europe is in similar straits as Italy:

      Italy is a dying country as babies no longer replace people who die, says health minister

      The native Europeans are in precipitous decline, and the immigrants they bring in are hostile to European values. The problem is even worse among the children of immigrants. Europe is heading towards civil war, and traditional European values will go by the wayside.

    97. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Proof by false authority. Good defence against facts, unfortunately facts cannot be beaten. Facts are on my side.

      If not, give examples where law does as much (or more) harm to the criminal as the criminal did to his victim. For every such example, I can give 2 where law does far less to the the criminal than the criminal did to the victim.

      I already gave some examples in my earlier posts in this same thread. You gave none, the hypothetical ones are false which you didn't even bother to defend so you know that they are false. A competent person does not have to plead to get their competence acknowledged, competence is evident from their arguments. It is missing from yours, though.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    98. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Not really... I said something was in the western tradition and you interpreted that to mean something much more narrow than what I actually said.

      I corrected you... and now you're butthurt that you lacked the imagination or precision of thought to grasp that I could be referring to something wider than what you consider typical.

      In any case... you're now officially boring me with your attempts to breath life into a dead argument. Its dead, jim.

      You can either accept that and make a new argument in this topic or please don't waste any more of my time pretending it isn't already over. This is boring.

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    99. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Awesome, the "competent " guy who is afraid of facts!

      --
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    100. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      You're just going into black knight mode at this point:
      https://youtu.be/dhRUe-gz690?t...

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    101. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by DiehardIndependent · · Score: 1

      As to which culture I'm presuming to defend... basically every culture in the first world. They're all endangered.

      Everything in western europe, the Japanese are in trouble, the Israelis are in trouble, the US is in trouble, Canada is likely in trouble though I am unaware of their statistics so that is just an assumption.

      From what I've seen... nearly every nation in the first world is suffering some version of this.

      Specifically I am American... but my worry here is not just for the US. Its the entire first world.

      I'm not worried about the US. I don't think the US is in trouble at all, at least not in terms of its culture being under threat.

      The thing about US culture is that it's constantly being shaped, and the driving factor of the evolution of US culture is and always has been immigration. It has been that way since the first Europeans landed in America. They don't call it a "melting pot" for nothing. There is no static US culture to defend.

      Waves of immigrants have always been met with derision and fear in the US, and those fears have never - not even once - been realized. Quite the opposite...immigrants have built the greatest country the world has ever seen. Immigration has always enriched American culture, not destroyed it.

      I'm really not worried about Europe either. After WWII, immigrants flooded into Europe, and the many different cultures there somehow came through it unscathed. I see no reason why Europe won't be able to handle immigration successfully now. It may be a rocky road that takes a while, but it will happen nonetheless. Perhaps the Europeans will follow the US model a little more closely this time around and they'll have an easier go of it.

      Japan? That country could use some cultural help. Japan's xenophobia is one of the main reasons for the trouble they're now in. The Japanese have some of the most strict immigration laws in the world, and until that changes they will be stuck with cultural stagnation.

      Israel? Israel currently has a fertility rate much higher than necessary to replace it's citizens going forward.

      As to objectionable qualities... this is not a useful question because one doesn't simply hold or not hold the views a culture because you find it to be or not to be objectionable.

      Well you saw fit to bring up the issue, so I think it's fair that you should answer questions about it. If I thought the question wasn't useful, I wouldn't have asked it. No matter though.

      As to why we have problems, yes... gender relations are used as political weapons and it results in poisoning gender relations in general which damages the ability of people in my culture to form relationships, start families, have the confidence to have children, and remain together long enough to socialize them into our culture.

      I see many of these gender issues to be leftovers from the women's rights movement and the sexual revolution of years ago. A lot of men still haven't figured out how to navigate in the new environment, and a lot of women still think men are their enemy oppressors. This will fade away eventually once new generations who don't have their butts clenched so tightly take things over.

    102. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I'll just address the final point.

      Any relationship involves two sides. And any change in regards to society should something that ultimately serves society. If a change damages society and ensures the ultimate collapse of that society... then the change was poorly executed... or possibly entirely inadvisable.

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    103. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      No, you just can't admit that you were wrong about law doing almost as much harm to criminals as the criminal did to the victim.

      --
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    104. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      *arms and legs cut off*

      "Oh, so you're a coward are you!? Running away!?"

      You're a loony.

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    105. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      You could have admitted your ignorance directly. This will also do.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    106. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Indeed... As the black knight, you must of course tell me that you always prevail and that you're always victorious... even when your fucking arms and legs are cut off.

      You're absurd.

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    107. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      You must daydream to be able to live with your own arrogant ignorance.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    108. Re:All this means is that you can catch them by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      Yes yes... you're going to bite my knee caps off... very scary.

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  8. I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by stealth.c · · Score: 1

    ...If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. Even in his time, just sticking to the truth was the path of least resistance.

    1. Re:I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by jc42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. Even in his time, just sticking to the truth was the path of least resistance.

      Basically good advice, but the reality is often subtler than that. Sometimes, you need both a good memory for the facts, and also a good memory of exactly what you really said. Ask anyone who's ever run for an elected audience. Your opponents will extract a portion of what you actually said, tweak it just a bit, and claim you said something rather different from what you really said.

      And publicising what you actually said, with the expectation that it'll expose your opponents' trickery, isn't always helpful. Google "invented the internet" for a nice example of how poorly exposing the facts can work. At least in the political arena, it's unlikely that anything will have much effect on the prevalence of brazen liars.

      Mark Twain also said "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    2. Re:I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by captjc · · Score: 1

      He also said it was a decaying art form. Few put the effort and creativity into a truly good lie. I guess, if you're really just not going to try, you are just better off telling the truth.

      --
      Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
    3. Re:I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, this is not actually the case. Memories are fallible. You have to remember what you did or said, or what opinions you had at the time. Numerous studies have shown that it is trivial to make people remember details in a different way than what really occurred. How many people have heard stories from their childhood so often that they can't remember what is actual memory, and what is reconstructed from the story? I have a hard time remembering which of my siblings did stuff, or which of my friends told me a story. Hell, I've even forgotten an entire day (no drugs involved, honest).

      Once I went on a trip with some friends and was excessively tired due to long work schedules. We had a great time hanging out at the lake and jet-skiing. A few years later, I went jet-skiing with the same friends. They were confused when I said I had never been jet-skiing before, and I had no idea how to operate the thing. They said, not only had I been jet-skiing, but that I was quite good at it. To this day, I have no recollection of the first outing. But I accept it as the truth, because they all said it happened. This was in the days before ubiquitous cell phones and digital cameras, and nobody would have brought a camera jet-skiing. So it's their word against mine, and I have to side with them.

    4. Re:I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      This is why the second part of the path of least resistance is openly admitting fallibility and qualifying every assertion.

      Caught me saying something now that differs slightly from my account of the same events before? Fine... I guess I forgot some details since then. Or I forgot to mention some details back then. Thanks for highlighting that, now I can combine my present memory with the record of my earlier statements to get a more complete picture of the truth.

      Caught me with a different opinion now than one I had before? Well that could be entirely because I changed my mind and though things over since then, and maybe I'm perfectly aware that I hold a different opinion now than before. If I wasn't aware of it... well, that's interesting, I forgot that I used to think that way. I wonder what made me change my mind since then. I would make this or that argument against my apparently former position these days, but I wonder if I'm forgetting some good argument against my current position that I used to be aware of.

      Once you stop pretending to be infallible, your fallibility ceases to be a liability, so long as you own up to it when presented with it.

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
    5. Re:I believe it was Mark Twain who said... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Openly admitting fallibility and qualifying every assertion means you sound less credible than the person who simply says what he or she thinks in a confident tone of voice. It's great for being personally honest, but it sucks if you want to convince somebody of something.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  9. Data can lie too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Do not ever forget --- not all data are reliable !

    1. Re:Data can lie too ! by VernonNemitz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "The permanent confrontation with a verifiable truth will turn us into overly cautious, calculating, and suspicious people." Maybe this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox. It makes cultures too cautious to go explore the Universe. Christopher Columbus, for example did not lie when he told Isabella that the Earth was 18,000 miles in circumference; he simply had bad data. But the ancient Greeks had good data that could have been replicated in the time of Columbus. If it had been suspected that the distance to India, sailing west from Spain, was an extra 7000 miles, the mission would have been "no go".

    2. Re:Data can lie too ! by hendrips · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is not quite correct about Columbus. Pretty much everyone except Columbus knew that Columbus was wrong about the travel distance to Asia. In fact, Columbus proposed his voyage to King John II of Portugal as early as 1485, and was laughed out of court. His brother was rejected by Henry VII of England in 1486 for the same reason.

      The Spanish Crown financed Columbus, over the objections of their scientific advisers , for two reasons: the conquest of Grenada was wrapped up in 1492, and the Crown needed to find something for their surplus soldiers and sailors to do, and more importantly, the Crown was absolutely desperate to do something, anything, to break Portugal's trading monopoly with the East around the Cape of Good Hope.

    3. Re: Data can lie too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The paradox is the idea of verifiable truth. Verifiable involves seeing something for yourself. Googling usually involves finding a link that matches your expectation and calling it fact.

      Math is verifiable. Outside of that the only thing we are doing is seeing if the data lines up to support the story.

    4. Re:Data can lie too ! by Heart44 · · Score: 1

      Maybe this is wrong. I am good at detecting when people are lying and I am surrounded by people who are good at detecting lying. The better they are at detecting lying the more open and truthful they are.

      You don't have to blurt everything out. You have a choice not to answer questions or deflect them without lying.

      Lying breeds mistrust. Not lying breeds trust.

  10. Not on /. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just like you can Google a fact to end an argument

    Obviously the author has never been in an argument on /.

    1. Re:Not on /. by mrbester · · Score: 2

      Or considered that the so-called "source of truth" could have been compromised either maliciously or accidentally by erroneous input.

      For example: my birthday on Skype is UNIX epoch date. I did that deliberately as it's none of Microsoft's business when it really is. However, my passport has an incorrect birth date because some numpty transcribed it from my birth certificate incorrectly and they want me to pay full price for a new one for their fuckup.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    2. Re:Not on /. by suso · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just like you can Google a fact to end an argument

      Obviously the author has never been in an argument on /.

      In an online class I recently took the instructor said something like "If you go in with the facts, nobody can argue with you".

      Sure they can.

    3. Re:Not on /. by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did you argue with him about it?

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    4. Re:Not on /. by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      Just as in your case regarding differing birth dates, many debates are not considered to be settled despite being settled by scientific trial.

      Many subscribe to belief sets that will not allow the introduction of new, contradictory evidence. Political, religious, and tribal leanings come to mind.

      Often enough, in debate, lying isn't the same as believing different fact(s).

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    5. Re:Not on /. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just like you can Google a fact to end an argument

      Obviously the author has never been in an argument on /.

      Also, there's the implicit assumption that all arguments can be resolved by "facts." In the real world, facts require interpretation and context. If you want to resolve a question like "Was person X at location Y at time Z?" then the facts needed to come to an answer usually have a relatively straightforward interpretation.

      But questions like "Did person X cause Y?" or "Is person X responsible/culpable for issue Y?" are not often resolvable by appeals to facts. Both sides can provide their "facts," but who wins the argument often is a matter of interpretation.

      And that's often where the "fact" problem comes in -- similar to arguments on Slashdot, it's often easy for someone to produce a battery of "facts" to support an argument. But if that person is biased and trying to win an argument, he/she may deliberately choose facts in a selective manner... which may significantly distort the truth.

      Being able to verify "facts" is only a small part of determining "truth" in most circumstances. If most arguments could easily be resolved simply by collecting facts, we'd have no need for a judicial system, for example -- we could just have a simple legal "scoresheet," tally up the "facts," and then we know the "truth" which can determine guilt or culpability or whatever.

      In the real world, "lying" is a much more complex behavior than simply stating demonstrably false facts -- it involves deliberate omissions of relevant facts or additions of irrelevant facts which can lead to misleading conclusions. Technology does much less to mitigate those latter concerns: in fact, with the proliferation of more and more data, it can make it harder to sift through what is actually relevant and irrelevant to answer a particular question.

    6. Re:Not on /. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Also, there's the implicit assumption that all arguments can be resolved by "facts."

      More importantly, there's the implicit assumption that these facts will always be available in correct and undistorted form from Google, which is so wrong-headed I can't even begin. Slanting Google to their worldview is a hobby (or even a business) for some people.

    7. Re:Not on /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you argue with him about it?

      They could have put on a clinic.

    8. Re:Not on /. by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      Most government issued ID I've had (from two different governments) offer free replacements if the data is entered erroneously on their end, provided you inform them in a timely fashion after getting the ID.

    9. Re:Not on /. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's not forget either, that guilty people are often strongly motivated cover up their guilt. Even getting to the facts is often the problem in court cases. For example:

      Prosecution: Your cellphone proves that you were at Location X at Time Y, thus proving your guilt!
      Defense: That cellphone was not in my possession at the time. Even if it were though, locating it at the scene of the crime does not prove guilt!

      And this raises the second issue. The prosecution wants to solve a crime. In their zeal to convict, they may very well believe the evidence to mean more than it really means. Or they may understand their evidence isn't perfect, but several lines of evidence support guilt without conclusively proving guilt. What does this mean?

      Often to the prosecution this means "guilty". And to the defence this means "innocent".

  11. 80% lie detection accuracy isn't that good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Imagine that you are talking to someone, and they are making a statement every few seconds (typical in a conversation). Now imagine that 1 out of every 5 sentences, a bell rings, telling you that they're lying, even though they are being perfectly truthful. (because that's the likely false positive rate, if the false negative rate is 20%.. most researchers "tune" the algorithm for what's known as equal error rate).

    Would this be ok?

    1. Re:80% lie detection accuracy isn't that good by GoonDuIO · · Score: 1

      I don't really think a lie detector should be used as a judge. It should be something like an advisor. So if the detector is warning the person that he/she is lying when the person is being truthful, one should be asking why is the device indicating as such. Likewise, if I am not sure whether the person is lying or not, the detector would be my advisor, telling me to be optimistically cautious. Besides, in a typical conversation, I would think a good 90% of the conversation is mostly harmless. When the stakes are high, I am sure the cracks are much easier to detect and see.

    2. Re:80% lie detection accuracy isn't that good by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      There isn't enough information in the summary (and like I'm going to read the article...pfft!) to conclude there's a 20% false positive rate. It could be, when someone's lying, 80% of the time it says "pants on fire!" 19% of the time it says "don't know" and 1% of the time it says "truth!"

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    3. Re:80% lie detection accuracy isn't that good by Maritz · · Score: 1

      I'm extremely skeptical that it is even anywhere near 80%.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    4. Re:80% lie detection accuracy isn't that good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The percentage of accuracy claimed for lie detector technology is mostly a manufactured statistic that lends it credence. It's the illusion that it works that make it work.

  12. Don't be fooled... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Technology is just another piece of evidence that can be manipulated. Would a good liar use it to their advantage? Absolutely. Had Risley been smarter, could she have taken a nap and then started thrashing around as she woke up? Yes. Then the FitBit would be _evidence_, not contradiction, that she was raped.

    There's a reason things like lie detector tests don't have to be admissible in court- they're still fallible. Don't be fooled into thinking anything new still relying on humans to analyze and use is going to be any different.

    1. Re:Don't be fooled... by Sarten-X · · Score: 2

      This is precisely the problem with this sort of thinking.

      A vast informational resource will reduce the frequency of things like lying on resumes. You can't just say "I did this" without others to corroborate your claim. However, that can easily lead to a tendency to simply assume the facts are out there. In turn, when someone does want to get away with lying, they can do so by making sure that their claims are either audacious enough that the victim assumes a lie would be impossible, or by fabricating enough support that their claim pass basic scrutiny.

      The little lies can be more easily caught, but the biggest lies can be given legitimacy.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Don't be fooled... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      This. How far can the technology be trusted? Is it foolproof? Is anything? Lie Detectors are largely discredited (not even admissible in court), it's questionable to believe this new tech (eye movement) is any less fallible. Then you have situations where some people may be technically lying but unknowingly; they may even believe their lie (psychosis), or was told the lie and are simply propagating it. Tech can't solve everything.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    3. Re:Don't be fooled... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't just say "I did this" without others to corroborate your claim

      Every manager I have had and every management job I have had used the same policy: say nothing about past employees except their job title and dates of employment. This is drilled into MBAs everywhere for legal reasons.

      If you want to say "I did this" about anything in the workplace, then yes you must say it without anyone to corroborate your claim.

  13. Watch the politicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    According to their actions the past 20 years, advances in technology have brought anything *but* increased fact checking and truthfulness. This idea would end up only being weaponized against the peasants.

  14. Fatbit by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Fitbit

    "Let that Slashdot nerd go, Chief, he's clean. His Fitbit showed he spent most of the day slouched and barely moving, interrupted only by trips to the bathroom."

    "What's this series of spikes here?"

    "It looks like he was shaking hands with someone vigorously. We're not sure who."

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:Fatbit by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Must have been really excited to meet this person, too. That handshake went on for a good two and a half minutes."

      Also, you missed the opportunity to rename it a "Fapbit."

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    2. Re:Fatbit by war4peace · · Score: 1

      It was Tiny Tim, I swear it by the Holy Bible!

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    3. Re:Fatbit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously though, I would distrust any claims made on the basis of fitbits.
      My wife has one, though she has since stopped using it.

      She thought she was doing great, until she realized that the fitbit was counting the times she clapped and shook her hands as steps, so it was reporting she had ran several miles when she knew she hadn't. She's a music teacher for kids K-5, and spends most of the day clapping, and the fitbit was registering it as miles ran.

  15. It's Not Always "Lying" by ideonexus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great example of our technology out-pacing our wisdom. What many people label "lying" is actually misremembering. Our biological memory-retrieval systems are extremely bad. Every time you remember something, your brain is rewriting the memory, meaning the more you remember an event the more your brain distorts it.

    This happens over and over again in our courts, people honestly remember things completely wrong and we call them liars. The film "Rosemary's Baby" is based on a true story of ritualistic child abuse, except the "real" story was entirely implanted in the minds of everyone involved by psychologists. Even the accused were convinced they were guilty. It's absurdly easy for a psychologist to implant false memories of our childhoods in experiments.

    The wording in this post unnerves me. The older I get and the more digital the world becomes, the more I learn that I misremember 60% of what has happened in my life. If technology is used to prosecute anyone who makes a statement that contradicts hard factual data, then many innocent people will be prosecuted. We need our scientific wisdom to catch up to our cognitive biases.

    --
    i ~ Celebrating Science, Cyberspace, Speculation
    1. Re:It's Not Always "Lying" by Maritz · · Score: 2

      The reporter who got castigated for 'falsely' claiming to be on a helicopter that was hit by a RPG in Iraq strikes me as similar. The narrative that our memory is straight up shit is not widely known.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:It's Not Always "Lying" by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Great example of our technology out-pacing our wisdom. What many people label "lying" is actually misremembering. Our biological memory-retrieval systems are extremely bad.

      Most people I know think of lying as deliberate action, designed to gain something, whether it is to get someone else in trouble, obfuscating the facts to make yourself look innocent or "right", or the more benign but still corrosive lying to tell others what you think they want to hear. Malice or manipulation in short.

      If my wife attributes something someone said 25 years ago to me, I'd never consider that a lie, just a faulty memory. Hers or perhaps even mine.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    3. Re:It's Not Always "Lying" by dywolf · · Score: 1

      That's basically it in a nutshell. The first time he told the story wrong could have just been a BS session. Could have been a simple mistake is relating it, could have been a bit of bravado to a buddy. Don't know. Doesn't matter. Not the point.

      Point is, the way our memory works is that very act of retrieving a memory can change it. So when we mistell the story once, it doesn't take long or much for it to -become- the memory, particularly when the memory is still somewhat pliable. ie, before it's been locked in by repetition, as repetition reinforces the neural connections and makes them more inflexible; but if the mistelling is what's been repeated it's what gets locked in. The Fish Tale, and its variants, is a classic example of this too. Few of us always recall and retell every story completely accurately without the intention of lying or being untruthful. In our minds we are being completely truthful.

      The Illustrated Guide to the Law (lawcomic.net) actually covered this really well recently too, in talking about the fallibility of eye witnesses, starting about here: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2...

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    4. Re:It's Not Always "Lying" by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

      The article is actually very good, it's the bulk of comments about the nature of lying and the lack of ability of most people commenting to fully understand the article that's the problem.

      Geeks just need to take more philosophy and psychology classes. They aren't as great at thinking rationally and creatively as they believe they are.

  16. This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... who catalogued their entire lives online including endless photographs, times and dates, feelings, opinions, likes, dislikes etc.

    Wait, whats that loud clucking sound I can hear?

    1. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by dave420 · · Score: 0

      You misspelled "millennials", shortly after calling them idiots... Interesting.

    2. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know. Seems to me that the general consensus of idiot would be people who ignore all the information we have in science, history and culture to say that people not only have differing feelings, opinions, likes and dislikes, but society is healthier by encouraging people to work past those differences publicly without harassment.

    3. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Informative

      You seem to like picking people up on spelling. Thats generally done by people who, in lieu actually having anything resembling a coherent point to contribute to the argument, feel they need to be noticed and admired for their - in their eyes - incredible intellect. Narcissists in other words.

      Got anything else or is that it?

    4. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Normally, I would agree with you that spelling flames say more about the flamer than the flamed.

      But you 100% deserved it for such a vapid and clueless denigration of people who do partake in the latest consumer technology. Get off my lawn grandpa!

      And I say this as someone who never uses social media or any of that other stuff. I'm just enough of a grown-up to realize that my values aren't the same as everybody else's values and that no more makes them an idiot than it makes me an idiot.

    5. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Viol8 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, can't let you get away with that. Someone who *willfully* places a whole boatload of personal information in the public domain without considering the long term consequences I'm afraid is solidly in the category of "idiot". And the millennial generation are the ones who are doing it by far the most.

    6. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      The problem is if you DON'T catalog your entire life online, have facebook/twitter/linkedin/ad nauseum, they don't trust you. They need to see your entire life to feel comfortable. If you're one of those "I don't do facebook" people, you've not only identified yourself as not one of their tribe, but your lack of researchable information makes you immediately suspicious. I recently lost what I thought would have been a good business deal because of this.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    7. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your definition of the "public domain" is incorrect. Can't let you get away with that. Feel free to continuing rationalizing though, I won't respond anymore since I'm not logged in and I'm closing the tab now.

    8. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by hexadecimate · · Score: 1

      And the millennial generation are the ones who are doing it by far the most.

      Can't argue with that. No, I mean you literally can't argue with that, as it's a fact-free generalization so vapid it defies refutation. Plus you have decided you can define "idiot" to mean anyone who does something you personally disagree with. Nice move, Orwell.

      But at least you've figured out how to spell the word "millennial."

    9. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and this is why i love slashdot

    10. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking loser. Bet you came back to read replies.

    11. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is changing old timer, I think we have considered it. When everyone's dirty laundry is out to air, it becomes a lot more difficult to be arrogant and morally superior. Keeps everyone honest.

    12. Re:This is only a problem for idiot millenials.. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      How about someone who willfully places a whole boatload of personal information on Facebook etc. while considering the long-term consequences? You can probably find out a lot about me, but there are things that are simply none of everyone else's business and which I don't talk about or allude to online. I figure that being open about a lot of things simplifies my life, and is excellent cover for keeping some secrets.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  17. You're kidding... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Obama administration puts the lie to the premise of this article....

  18. Pvalues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Take pvalues for example, p may very well be below 0.05 so you do have a significant result. However, this can occur just by calculating enough of them, or stopping the study as soon as that happens. The next level of the problem is that most users are not even really aware of the consequences of poor stats. So they do not even know thier behavior is equivilant to lying. Still the same amountains of misinformation get spread, which is the real problem rather than lying per se.

  19. Great news for psychopaths by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you believe the lie, it becomes the truth.

  20. Secrets by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

    Ask me no secrets and I'll tell you no lies.

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  21. I can't tell when I'm lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sometimes I can't even tell when I'm lying or am just mistaken or whatever.

    Whenever I see these "the end of..." articles I can't help but roll my eyes. And that's the honest truth.

  22. Everything on the net... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... is fiction anyway.

  23. It's a curse for anyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a curse for anyone who isn't so holier than thou that they shit marble.

  24. Obfuscation Increases by retroworks · · Score: 1

    Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Memes and misleading statistics are growing, and even if lies are shorter lived they occur exponentially more quickly.

    --
    Gently reply
  25. Re:will not work for poker games where people bluf by Maritz · · Score: 1

    I didn't see anyone suggest that it would. Poker is a game.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  26. False accusations of rape are not rare by sjbe · · Score: 4, Informative

    False rape accusations are rare.

    Rare? I'd hardly call 8% of accusations in the US rare. Even the lowest estimates are between 1-2% of cases. While it can be difficult to prosecute he-said/she-said cases and (too) many rape cases never come to trial, false accusations of rape are anything but rare.

    1. Re:False accusations of rape are not rare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Really?
      I assume you have never been falsely accused of a crime or infraction.
      A false charge, even if found to be false and your "non-guilty"-ness established, will destroy part of all of your current life.
      Remember, the USA is controlled by those who think "words" are more important then "doing".

    2. Re:False accusations of rape are not rare by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      8% aren't false, they are false *or unfounded*. Unfounded is very different from false. The first lines of the wikipedia article point out that it's hard to get statistics because of the difference between false and unfounded.

      Also, 8% of accusations can be rare, depending on how many accusations there are in a year.

  27. To Summarize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You can fool some of the people all of the time;
    You can fool all of the people some of the time;
    But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

    Still holds true since most people will not research what you say.

  28. The art of lying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The art of a good lie is in weaving it into truth.

    A lie on its own without some truth to back it up is doomed to failure. This has always been the case. If you want to be convincing in your lies, they need to be just small parts of a larger story which is mainly truth.

    If I told you that I was once interviewed by the TV news, talking about Princess Diana just after she died, then you might disbelieve me. And you'd be right to: it never happened.

    However, if I told you about the day I was walking around London minding my own business when a roving news camera crew approached me and started asking me questions about her, and then it ended up on TV... well, then you might be more inclined to believe it, because you'd know (or could check) that I had been in London that day, and the events described are perfectly plausible (there were a lot of news crews doing exactly that in London around the time). This version of the story is also a lie, but it's a lot more believable, and more importantly, the lie can survive a basic fact-check.

    So, no. This isn't the "end of lying". It may mean that a good liar now needs to be more careful in building the back-story, and it might mean that a few more liars are caught out, but lying in general will continue. It's human nature.

  29. When is lying smart? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems to me only when other people are being unreasonable. I don't ever have a need to lie.

  30. I am dating Christie Brinkley by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah yeah that's the ticket.

  31. What's the problem? by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The only time lying is permissible is in hard situations like the classic "Nazi asking if there are Jews in your house" or some other flavor of serious and unjust consequences for telling the truth. For most people, there won't be dire consequences because their lies will just make them lose face the way it's always been. For women like the one in PA who is being prosecuted, it will help those they victimize (both the male unjustly accused and real rape victims whose claims are viewed more skeptically).

    People wonder why lying is such a problem now in courts, well the reason why is that perjury is a joke compared to what it should be. The Old Testament definitely got that right. The price in the Mosaic Law for perjury was to be sentenced to the exact same punishment that is ordered for the list of offenses filed against the defendant. If the woman in PA knew that her perjury would get her say 20-30 years in prison and permanent sex offender status, you can bet she'd have taken it a lot more seriously than the usual at most few years it actually carries. Add a civil component that immediately pierces government immunity and you'd see cops behaving like boy scouts on the stand.

    1. Re:What's the problem? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The only time lying is permissible is in hard situations like the classic "Nazi asking if there are Jews in your house" or some other flavor of serious and unjust consequences for telling the truth.

      Bold assertion. What about "little white lies" - lies constructed so that all people involved are better off, or at least neutral, believing it. You know like "I thought that dress last night looked good on you"

      Beyond that, I may want to consistently lie to distort the data collected about me on the internet for marketing purposes. In this case (and many others) lies increase privacy.

      What about a male crossdresser who identifies as female to Google so he can see ads for shoes and makeup? Everyone wins, because of how that data will be used.

      And those are all cases that work if you think that lying is somehow wrong and needs to be counterbalanced in some way. I would think a more accurate statement is stuff like "getting someone to be falsely imprisoned" is wrong and lying is but one tool to cause that to happen.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    2. Re:What's the problem? by nephilimsd · · Score: 2

      Even the classic, "Does this dress make me fat" is, in the long run, better off for everyone if the simple unadulterated truth is used. It might hurt feelings in the short run, but in the long run, it will lead the dress-wearer to select more actually flattering clothing, which in turn would be actually appreciated by the admirer. At minimum, it would let both parties know more about the preferences of the other and may lead to more informed decisions. White lies are still lies and still lead to undesirable outcomes eventually.

    3. Re:What's the problem? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      That's a pretty sweeping statement to be presented without supporting evidence. You're speculating awful hard on the flattering clothing thing, and there's other ways to steer somebody into more flattering clothing.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    4. Re:What's the problem? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      , "Does this dress make me fat" is, in the long run, better off for everyone if the simple unadulterated truth is used.

      On a long enough timeline, it's absolutely meaningless. Whether your long term "benefits now outweigh the costs" happens before the meaningless longterm is a question of fact with tons of variables and no universal answer.

      it will lead the dress-wearer to select more actually flattering clothing, which in turn would be actually appreciated by the admirer

      Asserted without evidence. First, you're assuming that there is no other way to guide someone to more flattering clothes. Actually, first should be there's no proof that someone will interpret that as "a different dress would look better" instead of "you're fat, and all dresses will make you look fat. Then there's whether the asker is choosing based on whether the dress makes her look fat, or wants to wear the dress regardless. And, possibly most importantly, there's absolutely no guarantee that the admirer will be the one who gets to enjoy the better dress choices in the future, as opposed to someone with more tact.

      At minimum, it would let both parties know more about the preferences of the other

      You're assuming that the preferences of each other are of any real importance. Maybe that's just a favorite dress that will be worn regardless of actual preferences.

      At minimum, it would let both parties know more about the preferences of the other

      Or it could lead to the asker feeling worse, and therefore being less attractive (because of lower confidence), wear what they want anyway and be upset at the messanger (the responder). The responder meanwhile may see their feedback as not being respected, and feel worse as well.

      White lies are still lies and still lead to undesirable outcomes eventually.

      Prove it.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    5. Re:What's the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to be unaware of the use of lying as a social lubricant. Almost everyone lies in this way, and often.

      "Yes boss, that idea is terrific."
      "No honey, I completely understand losing $1000 on the slots."
      "Ruthie! I never said your Aunt smells funny!"

      One can come up with hypothetical examples endlessly.

  32. Will be the end of my country by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

    Here lying is as natural as breathing. It is extremely rare to find someone who speaks a truth the first time you ask something to him, here they lie even when it makes no sense to lie. A technology that could detect with 99% certainty when someone is lying would make the brains of people here to collapse, because they would not be able to withstand the urge to lie and having to tell the truth to avoid being caught by the machine.

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    1. Re:Will be the end of my country by digitalPhant0m · · Score: 1

      I don't believe you.

  33. the only reply to this is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whose lying to us now?

  34. Red herring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am disturbed by how many fake rape claims there are though. Something about that should be done.

    Perhaps this is awfully unfair of me, but I get the distinct impression that unprosecuted rapes don't bother you half as much.

    And here we have the technique of trying to switch from an argument that one does not like to fight against to an argument one wants to fight for. If only there were a name for such a rhetorical device.

    1. Re:Red herring by operagost · · Score: 3, Informative

      There are a few of them, actually. This could be a straw man, but since it's in the rebuttal it's more like a red herring. And there's an ad hominem on top of it, because the implication is that the concern of fake rapes would be invalidated if the claimant wasn't as concerned about unprosecuted rapes.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    2. Re:Red herring by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      If your fitbit can tell if you have been raped or not, then I think you're using it wrong.

    3. Re:Red herring by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Think we could call their lofty tone an appeal to authority? Perhaps, also, an appeal to emotions? I think we might even be able to fit a few more in there but Critical Thinking was so very long ago.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    4. Re:Red herring by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Are you claiming there's no cardio involved?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
  35. No lies, just more because...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there is anything good about lies it's the ability to soften up the blow before hitting them with the final strike. Or to give them hope, even if it is false.

    Example: "No, Billy your mother just.....went on a trip!" Reality: Hospital, critical condition, comatose. Might wake up might not, but you don't want to give the kid the idea he'll never see his mother again.

    Removing that ability is not a good idea. Not only can it cause more harm than good to the individual, it can also cause more harm than good to society.

    Example: Most people have some secret they don't want getting out, Gay / a guilty pleasure / who they have dated / worked for / an addiction / some past criminal activity / etc., what happens if their secret does get out? Depending on the secret and the people that find out about it, the "outing" may be positive. For example: finding out that others support your preferences. Or the "outing" could be very negative. Using the same example: Finding out that others will want to kill you for your preferences.

    Society tends to have a poor memory on it's own, which is a good thing. It enables people to start over and try to do better. (Or if non-criminal, find people more accepting of their secret.)
    One of the most common scenarios for a traveler entering a town in many works is them escaping the fallout of society becoming aware of their secrets. Not all of those works end well, but for those that do, it can be a life saving experience that brings them happiness. Remove that escape however and see what happens. Society tends to ridicule these people to no end. Many who've never met them before and as such have no justification to do so, but will ridicule none the less. In many instances this tends to either result in lashing out at society due to it's unforgiving nature, or the individual's suicide. What good does that do?

    I guess if that comes to pass, it's just more proof that we as a society are not mature enough to use the technology we have responsibly. We need to do better.

  36. The Tangled Web by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sir Humphrey: Unfortunately, although the answer was indeed clear, simple, and straightforward, there is some difficulty in justifiably assigning to it the fourth of the epithets you applied to the statement, inasmuch as the precise correlation between the information you communicated and the facts, insofar as they can be determined and demonstrated, is such as to cause epistemological problems, of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear.
    Hacker: Epistemological — what are you talking about?
    Sir Humphrey: You told a lie.
    Hacker: A lie?
    Sir Humphrey: A lie.
    Hacker: What do you mean, a lie?
    Sir Humphrey: I mean you lied. Yes, I know this is a difficult concept to get across to a politician. You ah yes, you did not tell the truth.

  37. Since when did by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 2

    Googling a fact end an argument?

    1. Re:Since when did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    2. Re:Since when did by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      What I go out of that is Learn When to Fold, Even If You're Right

  38. Not only lying by gshegosh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    programs that archive digital conversations make it easy to look back and see exactly who said what

    Not only lying will vanish then, but changing one's mind over time, too :-(

  39. Depends on ones reputation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I've actually tried confronting people with their lies, but that doesn't mean their friends will check the links you provide, or do research on them. Instead they will battle you. Then other people who can't be arsed to do any research of their own will base their opinion on the group of friends, etc etc.

    ie. If the liar's reputation is high enough, people won't believe the truth, even when presented with evidence.

  40. Technology of lies by Katatsumuri · · Score: 2

    Technology has been instrumental in spreading lies on a scale that was hard to achieve earlier: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06...

  41. Double-edged sword by Muntzsky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Facial analysis studies could show how to detect lies, but it could also instruct on how to evade detection. If you know which eye movements, twitches, etc. are indicators of lying, you can practice avoiding those things while lying. Conversely, peppering in those types of indicators during obvious truths could cause false positives and totally throw off the reliability of knowing whether someone is lying.

    1. Re:Double-edged sword by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Facial analysis studies could show how to detect lies, but it could also instruct on how to evade detection. If you know which eye movements, twitches, etc. are indicators of lying, you can practice avoiding those things while lying.

      I hear there's already botox treatments to make people appear more honest.

      Conversely, peppering in those types of indicators during obvious truths could cause false positives and totally throw off the reliability of knowing whether someone is lying.

      One of my favorite April Fool jokes is to tell someone a truth that they'll think is an April Fool joke...

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  42. So this is the end of the Political Class by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine, a world without politicians! :)

    They'll be replaced by statesmen (who can't lie).

    OK, so this article is basically lying. On the internet :)

  43. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oops; error; that should have been Exodus 21:22. Did I lie, or just make a careless mistake?

  44. Make it idiot-proof... by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

    ...and the Universe will produce a better idiot.

    I'm sure the same applies for liars.

  45. Lie detection does NOT work. by gurps_npc · · Score: 2
    82.5%, 92.5%, or even 95% is WORTHLESS when it comes to lies. We need something along the lines of 99.99% to even begin to consider it helpful.

    Let's say we have a school of 200 students, one of whom pulls a prank. Teachers apply the test to all 200 students and they get 35 people that failed the lie detector - but only of them did it. Worthless information.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Lie detection does NOT work. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      82.5%, 92.5%, or even 95% is WORTHLESS when it comes to lies. We need something along the lines of 99.99% to even begin to consider it helpful.

      Let's say we have a school of 200 students, one of whom pulls a prank. Teachers apply the test to all 200 students and they get 35 people that failed the lie detector - but only of them did it. Worthless information.

      Plus the school's no tolerance "policy" will demand that all 35 students get suspended.

    2. Re:Lie detection does NOT work. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lie detectors are worthless even at 100% accuracy because the concept is fundamentally flawed. Deception and lying aren't the same thing.

    3. Re:Lie detection does NOT work. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The trick is to stop testing as soon as someone fails the lie detector, and if you're lucky he'll have no alibi. As the prosecutor, never keep going until you get 35 of them.

    4. Re:Lie detection does NOT work. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Worthless? You eliminated 165 people from suspicion. How is that worthless? The lack of critical thinking skills on display here on Slashdot is appalling.

    5. Re:Lie detection does NOT work. by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

      No we haven't 'eliminated' anyone - there is still a 17.5% chance that the guilty is not in the 35 'liars'.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  46. Good old fashioned police work by operagost · · Score: 1

    Columbo could have figured out the fake rape case in 1975. There were no footprints in the snow, and no water or mud on the hardwood floors inside the house. You don't need to look at the Fitbit data to figure that one out.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  47. The end of religion? by dhaen · · Score: 1

    I hope so!

  48. Nice idea by no-body · · Score: 1

    Please apply it to political power plays, clandestine operations, secretive courts and legal systems, like tort law
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/we...

    A million years will pass and there will still be lies!
    Besides, who plays big brother and hoards all data in secrecy?
    Can all be manipulated at will, thats a permanent lie right there.

  49. Everybody Lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some just lie more than others. But, it's part of being human.

  50. Just like you can Google a fact to end an argument by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

    Okay, pretty much stopped reading at that point. The fact is that it's as easy to propagate lies through the Internet as it is truth.

  51. So how by koan · · Score: 1

    Did the cops get a hold of her "fitbit" info?

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  52. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    Yes.

    You lied if you intended for us to believe you were being accurate.

    You made a careless mistake anyways, either if you intended us to believe you were trying to be accurate, or if you were actually trying, but of course, didn't...

    And after all this, you could be forgiven. Just not by us.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  53. I see this as an unmitigated good by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but I see this as an unmitigated good. The times I have been damaged, I have been damaged by liars. Liars telling lies they know I have no way to contradict. In fact, this is basically how the world is run. People receive false evaluations from people in positions of power, they receive false promises from associates, they receive false information about people's intentions and the false factual information about events of the world. If there were some way to take away their power, then that would be a good thing.

    If you read the Snowden documents I read, then you know the intelligence techniques they use to discredit our enemies and others all involve the falsification of stories about that person- false accusers, false attribution, false stories.

    They do this because they know what everyone else on planet earth discovers over the course of their lives- there is virtually no penalty for lying about the speech and action of 3rd parties. It's just what people do to anyone they don't like for any reason and man, it works. It works so well it appears in top secret how-to manuals.

    So taking away this power which si basically used by most people for malignant reasons, where is the bad in that? What if you never had to be worry about malicious exes or lying co workers or HR couldn't lie about your performance or other gate keepers couldn't lie about the relative merits of your performance or attitude or speech or actions? How would your life be different?

    Sure, I could not tell Aunt Margey that her pie is wonderful, but by then Aunt Margy would have acclimated her expectations for praise, as would have everyone else. People whould do what I did a long time ago and seek and prefer the unhappy truth to the happy layer of bullshit that just confuses the issues.

    A lot of very very bad things in society are undergrided by agreed-upon lies. The motivation to maintain these lies ranges from a desire to comfort, to control, to manipulate, to hurt and to maintain a kind of Victorian veneer over the widespread ugliness of human nature.

    But many people who is aware of all those things in all their ugliness and the bottom hasn't fallen out of their psyces. They know why they are being rejected (you're ugly !), they know people are, at some basic level, reliably selfish and just bad, they know their SO lie to them that their inlaws have contempt for them that their boss steals credit for their work, that their preist lost his faith ages ago, and that Facebook is abusing its TOS every chance it gets. Still, they are not running mad into the streets or even giving up on humanity.

    Interpersonal relations aside, look you can't fix scietal problems you can't acknowledge and this will force people to, amongst other things, acknowledge reality. When in history has the knowledge of reality ever led to a regression in civilization? As far as I can tell it's led to an increase in the sphere of people society is willing to feel compassion towards.

    1. Re:I see this as an unmitigated good by waspleg · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but I see this as an unmitigated good

      I see a lack of imagination. The fact is *EVERYONE* lies. Whether it's polite white lies to save feeling or nasty malicious backstabbing for revenge or out of jealousy or whatever.

      Do you *LOVE* your job? Want to repeat your answer and look deep in to the eye scanner please? Do you agree 100% with everything your company does and its "mission"? Again, please look directly in to the eye scanner, thanks. --- This could literally go on forever. Refuse to take the eye scan test? Auto-fired.

      Also, people will obviously equate an 82% success rate with 100% success rate. Even shitty lie detector tests get this reputation with the masses, want to face a jury of your peers with these things? Really?

      It gets deeper. How about when these are used on video clips? Live broadcasts? Maybe people aren't naturally equipped to be 100% lie detectors for good reasons?

    2. Re:I see this as an unmitigated good by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 1

      My reply is- if everyone lies then it becomes a non-distinguishing feature, at least as far as the fact that you lie goes.

      You're more likely to be fired because someone lied about you or your performance. HR departments are virtual lying machines- their entire purpose is to drum up false performance evaluations so the company can fire the people they just don't like. If the HR representatives had to answer to a lawsuit and they couldn't lie, that would pretty much put an end to their current practices.

      "Mr HR representative, is it true that Mr Smith was not performant in his job?"

      "Mr HR representative, is it true that Mrs Smith was fired because the CEO thought she was overweight and unattractive ?

      "Mr HR representative, is it true that Mr Smith was denied the job because he was married / over 40 / disabled ?

      "Mr HR representative, is it true that Mr Smith was not not hired because the candidate was secretly already selected as part of an agreement between your company and company Y to not hire each other's employees?"

      The list goes on and on.

      What if people really DID have to tell the truth under oath in court? Would we still have testilying? And if we don't , wouldn't that mean that people stopped doing things they would have to lie about if questioned? Wouldn't that give honest people a chance to resist dishonest ones by saying, correctly, that they'll get caught if they do X so thanks, but I don't think I will do X ?

      People will adapt to the honest truth about their fellow humans and continuing to cover it up is just creating collateral chaos as people are again and again duped and blind sided.

      Given a world in which people can't lie, people will stop doing things they might have to lie about and also deviant but effectively harmless behaviour will not been seen as deviant just the way being gay is no longer seen as a sign of mental illness or deviancy.

      When we learn the unvarnished truth about each other, then we will also learn to accept those truths. That's a better more humane world than the one we live in currently.

      If people are unable to sustain a lie in the face of specific investigatory efforts, who does that hurt ?

    3. Re:I see this as an unmitigated good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given a world in which people can't lie

      I assert that no such world exists, will exist, nor even CAN exist (short of a level of invasive, continuous surveillance completely beyond scientific possibility, including monitoring and accurate recording/archiving of all thoughts and feelings). Also, free will is one of the most fundamental concepts of humanity, and I wouldn't want to live in a world without that. It's so vitally important that it's even worth dealing with the significant negative consequences of other people's poor choices.

      Now, a world in which the vast majority of people choose to never lie might be slightly closer to the realm of possibility, and could potentially be a "good thing" for some of the reasons stated.

      If people are unable to sustain a lie in the face of specific investigatory efforts, who does that hurt ?

      It hurts all the people who forget, make mistakes, or simply misremember, with NO conscious effort to deceive, all the people who are falsely accused due to errors in software, firmware, configuration settings, timestamps, misidentification, misunderstanding of technology, or external factors that cause the data uncovered by such investigatory efforts to support an incorrect conclusion. (At the most basic level: "I didn't seed that movie." "Well, we have an IP address in a log right here that conclusively /proves/ you did." It can of course go significantly beyond that). It also potentially hurts the victims of crimes whose perpetrators go unpunished because some incorrect, forged, or incomplete piece of data indicates innocence. Further, it may hurt those who incorrectly assume that all others are telling the truth because "nobody lies anymore, since anyone could just Google it."

    4. Re:I see this as an unmitigated good by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 1

      If you read what you wrote, you're not arguing against the inability to lie, you're arguing against other flaws in investigations. Of course those are going to continue to be problems.

      Sorry but I've been hurt too much too many times by too many baldfaced liars not to welcome a chance to watch them go down and disable them before they can strike another blow.

    5. Re:I see this as an unmitigated good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not that the inherent flaws merely "continue to be problems" but that they actually invalidate the premise. TFA makes a suggestion that is incompatible with reality.

      Sure, some compulsive liar in a chat room claims "I didn't say that" and you might have a log you can pull up showing that, yes, they did say that, but you or the liar or maybe even a third party could have doctored the log, or the liar can simply say that's not what they meant and refine the statement in hindsight. It isn't going to suddenly make them completely abandon their lying ways. At least that's not the behavior I've usually seen from folks like that. They seem to more often just brush it off and move on to the next lie (or "spin").

      I don't see that much has really changed fundamentally. There are just a few more potential sources of possibly-accurate evidence, as has been the case with every new innovation. Cash register receipts with date/time stamps that might even be correct, traffic cams, phone records, DNA, fingerprints, various pseudo-scientific concepts like fiber/hair matching, plain old footprints in the dirt, etc. Few if any are infallible. On average, maybe it will help the truth to be known more often, or maybe it will simply confuse the issue further.

      Basically, I still think the ABILITY to lie is essential, even though I agree that the CHOICE to lie is (generally) bad, and in any case I don't even believe it's possible for current technologies to remove the ability to lie anyway, at least not in a significant meaningful way beyond a few fitbit anecdotes and such here and there.

  54. Soon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get the point, but the case the Washington Post cites also relied on a total lack of foot prints in the snow around the "victim's" property and no boot prints inside the house on the hard floors. The fitbit data is only part of the equation because she said she was wearing it.

  55. Facial analysis to tell when a politician is lying by andrewbaldwin · · Score: 1

    Simple - their lips are moving

  56. Yeah by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    Because NOBODY ever lies on the internet. That's a proven fact, amirite?

    --
    -Styopa
  57. Some liars are easy to detect... by MitchDev · · Score: 1

    If a person is a Marketing drone, a politician, or a lawyer, they are liars.

  58. WE are owned by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Being owned is the new freedom

  59. Re:will not work for poker games where people bluf by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    No kidding. I don't think anyone is tweeting while playing poker "Royal Flush! Check out my #pokerface."

  60. Just a way to increase the prosecution of lying? by swb · · Score: 1

    I'm always kind of amazed its a crime (and a fairly serious one) to lie to the FBI and many other government police agencies. It seems like a fair number of people accused of some crime don't get convicted of it, but instead end up getting convicted of lying to investigators, often before they have been charged with a crime or even if they are not the target of the investigation at all.

    The better strategy most criminal defense attorneys advocate is don't talk to them at all. I think only a handful of people truly understand this and probably even fewer have the moxie to tell a government agent they don't want to talk to them. Cops have all manner of techniques they use to trick people into talking, including outright lying themselves, which is perfectly legal.

    I think it's a natural psychological reaction when asked questions about something by someone in authority to provide answers that make you seem as innocent as possible, even if you actually believe you personally haven't done something wrong. Some of it may not even be something we're aware of, along with all the other problems of memory error and the stress of being questioned by someone in authority.

    Perfecting lie detection just seem to be another way to ultimately force people into making confessions.

  61. more vulnerable to government authorities, etc? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Fine. Let's turn it around and make impossible for them to lie to us!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  62. Network News DISPROVES this theory. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I need to elaborate? OK, lead up to the IRAQ war, gov't spokesperson inserts falsehoods into the narrative, news agencies propagate, ... rinse and repeat.

    The premise requires that SOMEONE in the chain actually fact check and it is not being done in the media. Heavens knows most end users don't fact check either.

    Total fail.

  63. it depends... by tomhath · · Score: 1

    "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the--if he--if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not--that is one thing"

  64. What will they do? by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 1

    So then what will politicians, salesmen and Kickstarter campaigns ever do with themselves? Just remain silent? Maybe that's not a bad thing...

  65. Welcome to The Future by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

    "Deprived of the ability to omit or retouch the truth, under penalty of being caught by an army of inquisitorial eyeglasses, society would feel nearly uninhabitable. The permanent confrontation with a verifiable truth will turn us into overly cautious, calculating, and suspicious people. The apparent truth of what we are and say will be derived not from personal perceptions, particular intuitions and social judgments, but from complex calculations made by algorithms and computations based on the way we use our voice, turn our nose to the right, or incline our mouth to the left.

    It will be a mechanical and mechanized truth.

    We run the serious risk of losing, little by little, our spontaneous humanity, appearing more and more like the predetermined algorithms that observe and judge us."

    By not being able to think one thing and say another, our identity will become monochromatic.

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  66. My algorithm is 82.5% effective on politicians by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

    if (random_float(100.0) < 82.5) return LIE; else return TRUTH;

  67. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by bkr1_2k · · Score: 1

    You are aware there's a difference between a miscarriage and a premature birth, right? Every translation I can find of Exodus 21:22 indicates "no serious injury" after the birth, implying a premature (but otherwise healthy) birth, rather than a miscarriage.

    I know I'm nit-picking your post but your argument is seriously flawed for that particular portion.

    --
    "Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
  68. If this is true, one could say copying... by recharged95 · · Score: 1

    would increase.

    It appears:

    Lying = 1 / Copying (inversely proportional)

  69. What about technology failures and inaccuracies!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sounds like a dangerous precedent. Technology can be, and often is WRONG. There are bugs in software, there are outside circumstances, there are deliberate attempts to frame others (or "prove" innocence) by faking data, there is data that is cherry picked to support only one side of the story and sometimes the non-supporting data is deleted or not provided, there is data (including video) that is taken out of context to totally change the way its perceived by those viewing it without the important context, etc, etc.

    Stuff like this makes me crazy, as people just seem to assume that "the technology is always right" when it absolutely positively is NOT always accurate nor complete, and the people making these arguments rarely have sufficient understanding of the fallibility of the underlying technologies. Hell the people who /design/ some of these technologies don't even seem to understand that very well at times.

    Just ONE prime example: The assumption that an IP address = a person (but of course in the context of TFA things can go far, far beyond that, with potentially catastrophic consequences).

  70. A new training tool by mongothesecond · · Score: 1

    I'd like to see a study on how long it takes people to use this tool as a training aid, to become a less detectable liar.

  71. Confronting liars with evidence works... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...to prove they're lying, unless the liars are the ones providing, or can alter or suppress, or who have supporters who can alter or suppress, the evidence. Politicians and "scientists" often fall into this category.

    I much prefer the idea of lie detection. If it's indeed reliable , it should be incorporated into courtroom testimony and interviews with and speeches by politicians.

  72. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've noticed that aspect of the Biblical text, but have wondered about it being applied to the prematurely born, or only to the mother. The mother, after all, is the one who gets hit. If that hit causes harm, then the "eye for an eye" concept is invoked (in the next verse, if I recall right). Note that a hit can often cause a bruise, which technically is "harm", and so the penalty for that was just specified. If the hit doesn't cause harm to the mother, not even bruising, there is still the fact that the verse is about a premature birth happening, and so the penalty appears to be associated with that, only. Regardless of the prematurely born being alive or dead, an arbitrary penalty can be assessed. Including ZERO.

  73. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The author appears to have corrected the mistake as quickly as possible. See the time stamps? Your own time stamp, plus the message to which you specifically replied, shows you certainly saw both, meaning that you got all the data, not just the erroneous data. If the intent of the original message was to tell the truth, and the only error was corrected --I don't see you specifying any other errors!-- then your complaint could possibly be classed as "trolling".

  74. It's a Trap!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's extremely difficult to prove intent. Did you misremember or make an honest mistake, or did you actually intend to deceive? You can't determine that just by the outcome (i.e. it's completely incorrect to assume that the intent was to deceive if it benefited you and the intent was innocent if it hurts you, it could just as easily be a coincidence either way, or you might even be trying to sabotage your own interests consciously or unconsciously).
    Checking things like eye movements and whatnot may give some indication, for some people, but frankly, they do not meet the standard of proof and are therefore mostly useless.

    Not only that, what if you remember correctly, but the data itself is false? It could have been tampered with, some setting might have been incorrect, a software bug might be present, the date and time might be wrong due to DST or timezone or other user error, etc. You don't have to look any farther than the RIAA/MPAA/etc or local police speed cameras and such to see plenty of examples of the data either being utterly wrong, or not meeting the burden of proof.

    This will only get worse as opportunistic or greedy folks and attention starved prosecutes figure out they can use this to their advantage to prompt a settlement, get a judgement in their favor, or secure a (possibly undeserved) conviction of the accused. On the other side, criminals and shady lawyers will figure out they can "prove" they are innocent by providing data that shows them somewhere else or doing something else at the time the crime was committed.

    In short "it's a trap!"

  75. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I forgot to say that any premature birth with non-living offspring is equivalent to a miscarriage, and even a full-term birth can have non-living offspring (known as a still-birth). So, just because birth happened prematurely, there was no reason to assume that was why any offspring might be dead.

  76. Re:Dramatic much? by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

    I say not paying property tax can result in death because it reduces the cash flow to schools, thus reducing the quality of education, thus reducing the number of well-educated doctors, thus reducing people's access to quality healthcare, leading to worse health outcomes, including death. See! That was easy!

  77. And you are totally wrong, because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that will NEVER happen. In fact, more data may well make lying easier and worse, and will also open up innocent people to false accusations based on fabricated "data" or software bugs or incorrect date/time stamps or video that was deleted right up to the point where vitally important context is lost, or any number of other things (not to mention the converse with regard to guilty people getting off because some, possibly incorrect or tampered data contradicts the prosecution's story).

    Not only that it sounds like you're essentially invoking Snowden, but in SUPPORT of a surveillance society? What the?! If you can't lie because there's too much data available that would expose it, that data has to come from somewhere. If it's an "opt-in" somewhere, then liars will just not opt-in, so it would have to be mandatory, hence, pervasive surveillance and unlimited data retention periods. Gah!

    Now, if by some other means we could somehow actually live in a world were it is impossible to lie (or where EVERYONE chose to be honest all the time), I might provisionally agree that the net outcome might be more positive than negative (eventually), but that's quite frankly 100% impossible until or unless we can fully implement continuous mind-reading (even through tinfoil hats), so hardly seems worth mentioning.

    So, good? Maybe, possibly, arguably. Unmitigated? No way, not even close.

  78. Re:The PC crowd has already planned for this... by dywolf · · Score: 0

    Mr. AC, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  79. Yeah science by multi+io · · Score: 1

    "The research shows the way lies are really uncovered is by comparing what someone is saying to the evidence,"

    Looks like those mad scientists make new groundbreaking discoveries every day now.

  80. Re: Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    The poster asked a question. I offered an answer. Did you miss that?

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  81. Don't forget, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While I'm sure most people read the 82.5% as saying 'Liars get away with it 17.5% of the time,' remember that some portion of that 17.5% must be false positives (i.e. someone telling the truth is called a liar).

    Your example points to this; while 35 people 'failed' the lie detector test (and as you point out only one person did it), this doesn't even tell you that one of the 35 is the culprit - the actual culprit may be one of the 165 people who 'passed' the test (from a false negative).

    I agree with you, 82.5% doesn't seem accurate enough to reach the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard.

  82. The End of Marriage as we know it... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
    If this gets too prevalent and every day....I predict the end of long marriages.

    A long, and happy marriage will never exist if everyone has to be 100% honest.

    I mean, one of the familiar "Honey does this dress make my ass look big" episodes alone will cause chinks in the marital armor.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    1. Re:The End of Marriage as we know it... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      But on the other hand she can no longer tell you nothing is wrong when you ask because it is blatantly obvious she is mad as hell about something. She would be forced to either blatantly say that she refuses to tell you the reason, or actually tell you what she is angry at you over!
      This could actually be a very large boon to relationships. Since she is going to be telling you what the problem is you can actually do something about fixing the problem instead of agonizing over what she could possibly be angry about, and lets face it, we never know what you are angry about girls. If she doesn't tell you the problem and blatantly tells you that she is not going to tell you, well nobody is going to take her side when she says that instead of "he should know why I'm mad at him" which is what is often said to others to get them to take their side.

  83. Nein! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And misspellers won't stop misspelling!

  84. God. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am God.

  85. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Falos · · Score: 1

    I am seeing several lines that would defend me to murder useless infants and even adult homo-sapien-animals.

    If they were intentional, that's cool I guess. I mean, I do recognize that someone slowly stabbing me to death doesn't matter in the Grand Scheme of Things. I'm strongly of the opinion that stabbings are wrong, particularly stabbings of myself, but I defer to fact, to the precise accuracy of your words, which indeed declared a cosmic scale of reference. There, even the loss of Earth can become a footnote, be it by a ruined climate or a comet.

    Now, having finished this tour of my respect towards meticulous accuracy, maybe we should revisit my first sentence.

  86. Just stop trying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The statement "picking people up on spelling" is terrible. I don't even think it's proper grammar but you may be from a country other than the U.S.A. so I'll let that one slide. However, "Thats" is supposed to have an apostrophe. There was supposed to be the word "of" after "in lieu". You misused the hyphens when trying to be noticed and admired for your superior grammar skills. The last phrase you typed is not a complete sentence and there is typically a comma before "in other words" when used at the end of a sentence.

    Care to try again or is that it?

  87. Won't somebody think of the children? by lhowaf · · Score: 1

    I guess Santa, the Easter Bunny and [insert cultural myth here] are dead. Damn webcams.

  88. stuff and nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Researchers claim video-analysis software can analyze eye movement successfully to identify whether or not a subject is fibbing 82.5 percent of the time." Read the linked-to article. Stuff and nonsense; the claim is based on an unpublished (as of a year later) study with 40 subjects (and it's not even clear from the linked to Scientific American report how many of the 40 actually "lied"; if they didn't lie, then they would not have counted in calculating the 82.5%).

  89. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't the word "murder" only apply to killing persons? So, if an adult human is only an animal, not a person (like the brain-dead on life-support that was given as an example), killing it can't be murder, can it? In any case, the earlier post was specifically about the "Overall Abortion Debate" --a phrase specified/capitalized twice. Killing infants and adults is outside the scope of that debate; there should be other debates about them, in which other factors can be introduced. Like for instance, if it is not OK for your neighbor to kill your pet that you want to keep alive, it should also not be OK for your neighbor to kill your infant that you want to keep alive. Also, there is the fact that the legal system, in spite of the scientific data, declares all born humans to be persons --and that means killing one would be murder. It is ironic, though, how lawmakers tend to pay attention to scientific data these days --so those who oppose abortion might find their efforts backfiring, with infanticide getting legalized instead. Perhaps it would be better for them to simply shut up, after admitting they have lost the abortion debate.

  90. Re: Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I tried to explain how your answer was flawed, since it only referenced part of the data that had been presented, and didn't acknowledge the correction.

  91. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Humans are both animals and persons. The two terms are not mutually exclusive.

  92. Fitbits by kmoser · · Score: 1
    FTA:

    However, a Fitbit device Risley was wearing told a different story, the affidavit shows.
    The device, which monitors a person’s activity and sleep, showed Risley was awake and walking around at the time she claimed she was sleeping.

    What if the intruder had messed with her Fitbit while she was sleeping, unbeknownst to her?

  93. Re:Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by VernonNemitz · · Score: 1

    Just because all humans are animals, and some humans are also persons, that doesn't mean all humans are persons. Stories about Artificial Intelligence researchers trying to create persons prove that the English language allows personhood to be entirely independent of animal-ness. So we must make distinctions here for the sake of accuracy, if nothing else. Here is a little table (could be expanded enormously when thinking about the whole Universe):
    Entity . . . . . . . . . . | animal | person
    typical human. . . . . . . | . .x. .| . x
    True A.I. (when perfected) | . . . .| . x
    . . . . dolphin. . . . . . | . .x. .| . ?
    human hydatidiform mole . .| . . . .|
    brain-dead human . . . . . | . .x. .|
    . . . . . . dog. . . . . . | . .x. .|
    human womb-occupant. . . . | . .x. .|

    (Note, while each cell in a hydatidiform mole is a human animal organism, the mole as a whole is as disorganized as a "bacterial mat"; it is not an animal.) The concepts are "human" and "person", are proved to be independent of each other when the language allows non-humans to be called persons (even if, so far, only in terms of religion or mythology or fiction) --and when we know of cases where humans most certainly are not persons. Like brain-dead adult humans on full life-support. The whole reason the legal system allows the "plug" to be pulled is because the person-aspect of the human is dead. Only a living human animal body remains, with no essence-of-personhood present. And with one example, others become possible, too. Like unborn human womb-occupants, whiare also totally animal, and even just before birth have measurably far less of personhood than adult dogs, to say nothing of the personhood of adult dolphins (which in turn is a magnitude still being debated; on what basis could womb-occupants qualify as persons if dogs can't possibly qualify?).

  94. So where's the analysis of Obama? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    And are we going to use this technology on our candidates? I think we should.

  95. Re: Lies, I say ,,, won't win in the end by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "it only referenced part of the data"
    Lying by omission, or cherry-picking the data, is a common failing of many who want abortion to be illegal.