Thanks for not lying

Awhile back, one of my younger (read: trendier) friends started using the phrase, "I'm not gonna lie to ya..." He'd pepper it throughout his speech, and sometimes kick off a whole paragraph with it. It was funny the first time he used it. Then it became mildly annoying.

Since then, I've noticed all sorts of people use it. Way. Too. Often. In fact, my favorite columnist on the Post-Dispatch's site began this week's column with it. So I started thinking about it, and what it means.

I'm not going to lie to you.

Saying that right before or after a statement precludes that everything else you've said, apparently, were lies. And if you were going to lie to me, would you come right out and say, "I'm lying to you right now"? I don't think so.

Let's just assume that I'll treat everything you tell me as the truth, unless I have really good reason to think you're lying, which makes the whole "I'm not gonna lie to ya" sentence completely irrelevant.

It's like when people say, "To be honest..." or "To be frank..." That only connotes that all the other times you speak, when you don't say that disclaimer, you're not being honest or frank.

So, I really wish people would stop telling me they're not going to lie to me, because it only makes me wonder when they are going to lie to me.

I like to ponder the big things in life, I do.