Fudge?

September 17th, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

No, not the kind you eat with bliss, but the fudging one does with truth.

Apparently, that’s pretty common. A recent study showed that, on average, Americans fib four times a day. Respondents also feel someone lies to them about six times daily.

“Hey, that bright red tie looks great on you; and I love its purple polka dots.”

“Lady, that meatloaf of yours was outstanding.”

And my favorite: “That was a great sermon!”

Uh, huh!

(If you want to get away with food-related fudges, here’s one: You are given a whole cake. You take it home. It tastes horrible. You throw the whole thing out immediately. “That was some cake. Cakes like that don’t last long in my house.”)

Anyhow, aforementioned study was commissioned, appropriately enough, by Online Betting Guide, and conducted by OnePoll: it wasn’t exactly about fudging, but how to spot others who fudge. 53% of Americans believe they’re good at spotting when others are lying to them.

But you know what? If you avoid fudgers’ mannerisms, you might be able to get away with a good fudge!

Judi James, a body language expert and author of Poker Face, lists these as signs of fudging that you can spot (or can avoid to be an expert fudger): eye direction/eye dart (suddenly swinging elsewhere), micro-smirk (one side of the mouth rising slightly), poker face (yup, when the expression suddenly becomes blank and bland), eyebrow shrugs (not sure why), asymmetric facial expressions (lop-sided smiles or puckered mouth and stuff), hand-to-face gestures (from a desire to conceal: rubbing the face, touching the nose), self-comfort rituals (fiddling with a ring, an earring, an ear, a lock of air, tapping and drumming with fingers).

Avoid all of those and you’ve got it made.

But it gets complicated.

Said Judi James:

Body language is not a precise science and when you’re looking for signs of lying there is no such thing as a perfect body language ‘tell’, only clues and hints. Poker players, in particular, can use micro-gestures when they lie or bluff but a good liar could use this to their benefit, acting the ‘tell’ to suit themselves and confuse their opponents. Imagine you’ve spotted an opponent’s ‘tell’ when you’re playing poker. You’ve noticed that when they are bluffing their eyes dart quickly from side to side. This ‘tell’ is only useful to you if they’re not aware of it themselves though. If they know their own trait then they can use it to fool you too. Are they bluffing or is this a double-bluff?”

All things considered, dishonesty may not really be the best policy!

The psalmist laments in the Bible that truthtellers are disappearing fast these days:

Do deliver, Yahweh, for the devout one has come to an end,
for the faithful have disappeared from among humans.
Psalm 12:1

Instead:

Falsehood they speak, one to his fellow;
with the lip of smoothness, in a double heart, they speak.
Psalm 12:2

There will be consequences for these fudgers:

May Yahweh cut off all lips of smoothness,
the tongue speaking big things—
[those] who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are in our own [power]—who is lord over us?”
“Because of the devastation of the afflicted,
because of the groaning of the needy,
now I will arise,” says Yahweh;
“I will set in deliverance, the one who pants for it.”
Psalm 12:3–5

Truth, especially God’s truth, is always good.

The sayings of Yahweh are pure sayings,
silver refined in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times.
Psalm 12:6

Always! Never a fudge!