Are you credulous?

I believe there to be truth in everything, just not the whole truth. Now it means that we are not getting all of the facts

I am way to trusting. I always trust people, even when logically I know there is a good chance they are lying to me.

@gussnarp We can never really know. Can we?

I’m for real. Like you I have run across some whack jobs on the Net over the years and a few of them had me questioning what was real anywhere.

@SpatzieLover The Matrix made me feel like that

I always read between the lines.

@shego it made me learn that even as jaded as I’ve become through various life experiences, I’m still too trusting

I trust to much too. But that movie made me wonder though.

I used to think everyone was telling truth as well. I only distrust people if they prove they cannot be trusted.

The movie made me wonder why they didnt kill all the humans and just use cows. I think greenPastures.exe would be much easier to program than wholeWorld.exe

When people tell me stories that seem kinda far out, I always think in the back of my mind that they are lying. Even though it depends on the person and how well I know them, how much I really believe that they just fed me a big helping of BS.

@jackm – LOL.

I’m a lot of things, including open-minded and wanting to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I am foremost a scientist and naturally skeptical and analytical about everything. I also am very intuitive and perceptive and thus have a pretty finely tuned bullshit meter. The amount of B.S. out there keeps me constantly on guard.

Sometimes, though, I want to believe something.. like, I’m fascinated or intrigued by the idea, and it slips through the B.S. force field.

I used to think all people were basically honest and good. The awful people you read about or see on TV were an anomaly and would likely never enter my life – and if they did it would be in a horrible way that I would recognize immediately.

I was so naive. I have met two people I sincerely believe to be sociopaths and was in very deep before I managed to extract myself. One I had to move across the country to break ties and the other sent me on a mental crash and burn. Talk about learning the hard way. I still tend to trust too easily, but I am also able to walk away at the first sign of manipulation.

I trust until given a reason not to. With some, I take everything they say with a grain of salt.

I assume people are good and trustworthy, but I always verify that. Mostly I use my nose to provide verification. If a story doesn’t hang together, I start asking questions. I someone’s story seems to hang together over time, in a lot of different aspects of life, then I’m willing to believe the person is telling the truth about their life.

I do not consider myself to be credulous. That seems to imply an unquestioning acceptance. As you might have guessed by now, I never stop asking questions! ;-)

I believe I am.

I am a bald, fat, middle aged male with an overinflated ego and sense of self. . .

. . .or am I?

once again ladies, back off. i’m spoken for.

if you say I am, then I believe I am.

I believe most stuff that is believable. But there is an old saying that goes, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is!”

When I read some posts or boasts (or news reports or whatever) describing scenarios that seem as if the only possible place they could be true is in a fairy tale, then I begin to wonder.

Well in most cases it doesn’t really matter if they are lying or telling the truth. It isn’t hurting me in any way by believing it is the truth so I prefer to take things at face value. I do know people extend the truth on the internet but oh well might as well just let them.

Personally I’m a truth teller. Both online and in-person.

I have met so many liars online! I don’t tell them I know, I enjoy the conversation and I don’t know them in person so as long as the lies aren’t hurting me I don’t care. I am completely honest online and sometimes it frightens me and makes me a little paranoid but I just be me because I am more comfortable being me.
People can tell anything they like online because there is no real way for them to be proven wrong and if they get uncomfortable it is so easy to cut ties with these people. I think it says that we as people try to be chameleons online because we can be.

I have learned A LOT about liars in online communities. It’s a whole new way of lying! Some people revel in the freedom of being who they wish they were. I don’t really hold it against them because I know that they feel bad about the character deficit they wish wasn’t inside them. It sucks when your problems make you thier bitch, so I tend to let those things slide whenever possible, but I won’t be friends with them, either.

On the other hand, I don’t hide shit – not even my name. It’s entirely a personal choice. I decided a long time ago not to lie or be misleading with anything (there have been only a few slip ups in the past two years, but I’m okay with that). Over time, it got to the point that I excelled at it. Now I have another thing that positively feeds my self-esteem, and I love that. I worked to earn that. So, am I credible? That question would best be asked to those who have had experience dealing with me. You’re free to ask around.

I don’t hide shit, but I do hide my name. I wonder, @phillis, if you had shit like mine, would you hide it or hide your name?

—@wundayatta I worked toward not hiding either one. Shame is the most useless,
damning, destructive human emotion that has ever existed, and I am done with it. That has everything to do with credibility. People are going to know whether you’re a mess, anyway, because they aren’t stupid. They may not know what you’re hiding, but they know you’re hiding something if you’re not a professional liar.

It works best if I just come clean and stay clean. My issues don’t look nearly as big and badass if I bring them out into the daylight instead of shoving them in the closet and keeping the door closed. I learned that you can hide in shame, or illuminate your own issues to help other people not feel so badly about thier own. It was THE best decision I could have possibly made. My pointless shame was cured.