We’ve all told a little white lie once or twice in our life, in an effort to get ourselves out of a commitment, or possibly not hurt someone’s feelings.
While a little white lie might seem harmless, the discovery that you’ve been untruthful, even in the slightest bit, could result in finding yourself in serious trouble with family, friends, colleagues and bosses.
Then too, sometimes maintaining a lie might simply be more trouble than it’s worth.
The younger brother of Redditor Confident_Cookie_241 had been successfully keeping up a façade about his vision to his friends and family for many years.
Having finally had enough, the original poster (OP) decided to expose his lie, and chose a rather surprising time and place to do it.
As one might imagine, her successful exposure did not sit well with her brother, nor her parents.
Wondering if she went too far, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where she asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for using a fake test to expose my ‘colorblind’ brother in front of friends and family?”
The OP explained how when an opportunity came for her to expose her younger brother’s years of lying, she wasted no time in jumping on it.
“So, I (17 F[emale]) have a brother (15 M[ale]) who claims he’s colorblind.”
“When he was younger, all his paintings and drawings seemed normal.”
“The whole colorblind claim started after he turned 10, all because of a light pink t-shirt he perceived as white.”
“My parents joked about him being colorblind since my uncle (my dad’s brother) is.”
“He continued this claim, constantly mentioning it to others, which has always annoyed me because I’m sure he’s lying.”
“I’ve told my parents, but they brush me off, saying I’m just jealous of the attention he gets.”
“Last week was my birthday.”
“I had a gathering at home with about 25-30 people on the weekend.”
“The topic of his supposed colorblindness came up again, with everyone asking him to identify colors.”
‘I, feeling frustrated, asked him to take an Ishihara test on the TV.”
“He agreed after some hesitation.”
“I went up to my room to grab my computer to plug to the TV.”
“But instead of a genuine test, I used a fake Ishihara test, one that anyone could pass.”
‘He pretended not to see some numbers, and once the test concluded, I revealed to everyone that it was a fake test, aiming to show he was lying.”
“The mood turned sour.”
“My brother and parents were furious.”
“My family tried to brush it off, making jokes, and my friends found it amusing.”
“Post-party, my parents were livid, they labeled me as an ‘attention seeker’ and a jealous a**hole and grounded me for embarrassing my brother.”
“I feel like had he been honest, he wouldn’t have been humiliated.”
“So, AITA?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation, by declaring:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No a**holes Here
The Reddit community was generally in agreement that the OP was not the a**hole for revealing that her brother was not actually color-blind.
While not everyone felt her methods were particularly nice, nearly everyone agreed that her brother’s lie deserved to be called out, as many felt he was making light of a condition that many people do actually suffer from.
“NTA.”
“One T-shirt color misidentification does not a color blind person make.”
“For example, I have a really hard time telling red and dark orange apart.”
“However, I am not colorblind.”
“Sounds like your bro found something that got him attention and rolled with it.”
“Kids with actual color blindness make it very obvious they are colorblind in elementary school.”
“He’s likely at the point where it’s too late for him to back down now.”- stalkerofthedead
“It was a super d*ck move, but you’re honestly doing him a favor.”
“Some people might say it’s Munchausen’s syndrome, but it’s probably more likely a symptom of a developing ego disorder.”
“Pathological lying, narcissism.”
“Generally, the reason people develop these ego disorders is to obfuscate their own insecurity or an inferiority complex.”
“I would follow up with your brother and apologize for the manner in which you did this but explain why it’s important that he understands that lying has real-life consequence.”
“That most people, like everyone in the room with you that day, see right through his lies but humor him to avoid conflict.”
“Does he honestly want to be humored his whole life?”
“Deluding himself that other people buy his lies?”
“Cause they don’t.”
“I’d also seriously talk to your parents about therapy for him and to specifically cover the lying.”-Awful-Male
“NTA lol, I wish I was there to see it, but why didn’t your parents take him to an ophthalmologist when he claimed he was colorblind?”- Pitiful-Syllabub4009
“NTA.”
“Your brother’s long con got exposed, and your parents appeared stupid in front of the family for going along/falling for his lies which is why they are angry.”
“It’s not your fault if they didn’t stop his BS when you were telling them about it.”- Over-Ad9975
“Ehhhhh NTA. Liars deserve to be called out, and you didn’t embarrass him. He did that to himself.”-xCoffee-Addictx
“Your parents atah for perpetuating his attention-seeking behavior and then deferring the blame onto you instead of having a difficult conversation with their golden child.”- slutforspyderco
“NTA.”
“For people who are handwaving this, he’s been doing it for five years.”
“He’s old enough to know better and to know that lying is wrong.”
“Your parents not looking into it and seemingly being dismissive is troubling.”- codeverity
“Buy him hot pink pants and a pink tee shirt and ask him to wear it and go to school.”
“Tell him it’s blue and black or something.”
“When he refuses to wear it, ask him why the colors are nice.”-18k_gold
“NTA.”
“That needed to stop.”
“And your parents should not have been encouraging it.”- I_might_be_weasel
“NTA.”
“Do your parents usually favor your brother?”- LadyKnightAngie
“NTA.”
“I am surprised you managed to hold out for 5yrs of this!”
“I’d have lost my mind at someone lying at me when I know they are lying and they won’t admit it for five years!”
“Like oh my gosh, it’s been five years. Give it a rest.”
“He felt completely comfortable lying to this many people; no idea why suddenly it’s so embarrassing to be caught out in front of this many people.”
“And honestly a pink and white shirt is easy to mistake plus people make color mistakes all the time.”
“At the optometrist, I was so confused when they wanted me to look at the green circle on the screen.”
“There was no green circle, only a blue one.”
“I chalked it up to that one person being mistaken, but someone else made that mistake.”
“I mentioned it, and the guy said, ‘it’s definitely green’.”
“I have never, that I know of, mixed up colors before, but clearly some people just have one-offs.”-I-hear-the-coast
Others, however, felt that the OP’s decision to expose her brother’s lie so publicly was unkind and unnecessary, even if they agreed he shouldn’t have lied in the first place and deserved to be called out.
“ESH.”
“It’s super weird for your brother to do that.”
“But also hes 15 this is how most 15-year-old act they are weird and look for attention at any little thing.”
“Being 15 sucks, and most people look back at being 15 with embarrassment.”
“But it’s also really sh*tty of you to do what you did.”
“There wasn’t a reason to do it in front of people especially on your birthday. This could have been something that you brought up, not in front of a bunch of people.”
“If anything, you def need to apologize to your brother and maybe do some inner thinking about why you decided to do that.”
“And then have a sit-down convo with your parents and talk about the lying problem your brother has.”
“But you need to defuse the situation first.”- emomp4
“I don’t understand why you used a fake test instead of a real one?”
“If it were a real one, whether he was or wasn’t colorblind would’ve come out.”
“He wouldn’t know what to say to be discerned as colorblind or not, the test would just do its job.”
“If he lies about what he’s seeing, the test would be inconclusive… which also just shows he’s lying.”
“The fact that you don’t care about the truth but only want to find a way to humiliate him and gain attention yourself means YTA.”
“Your parents are the real AHs here. Why don’t they want to find out for sure and get him the support he needs?”
“If he needs it.”- Manefisto
Being publicly humiliated is never fun, and one can’t help but feel that the OP could have come up with a less public solution to put an end to her brother’s lying.
Even so, the OP’s brother’s lie was eventually going to catch up with him, one way or another.
Had he been honest in the first place, he could have spared himself the humiliation.