Hello talk page stalker here Stating that someone is lying is absolutely not a personal attack All that such a statement means is that what they are saying is contradicted by reality It makes no comment whatever about their character If I say the sun is purple anyone is free to say that such a statement is a lie and that s not an attack against me it s a contradiction of my statement First start by deciding whether you re talking about A the characterization of somebody as lying or B the characterization of a statement as a lie Secondly note that in most societies and at most times though with very many exceptions anyone is free to say that anything is anything I m free to call Tide rolls a hamster Tide rolls is free to call me a stick of asparagus Your seeming interpretation of lie as merely false statement seems extraordinary Here s Harry Frankfurt on lies via a prefatory examination of humbug on his way to the investigation of bullshit In this respect the property of being humbug is similar to that of being a lie which is identical neither with the falsity nor with any of the other properties of the statement the liar makes but which requires that the liar makes his statement in a certain state of mind namely with an intention to deceive