essex man
Member
- Location
- colchester
Yes!This has been argued to death in the Courts... as things stand if someone states something as honest belief it may still be untrue; but it is only a lie if deceit is intended.
However the test can be subjective on the basis that an average person can be expected to make a reasonable and rational judgement about or an effort to establish the fact of what he is saying.
Obviously the more technical or specialist the subject and the speaker's claims to be expert, the higher the standard expected of him.
On the other side, believing something self-evidently does not in and of itself make the thing true, and believing when it is manifestly wrong or hard evidence has been adduced to disprove it is seen as perverse; refuting plain fact is also perverse.
So in the context of people posting on a forum it's very hard to justify saying someone is lying as opposed to saying something you don't agree is true