Being a utilitarian, I don't think that lying (or anything else) is inherently immoral, and you can only judge the morality of intent based on intended and actu

Being a utilitarian, I don't think that lying (or anything else) is inherently immoral, and you can only judge the morality of intent based on intended and actual outcomes. So in that case, I'd say you've correctly assessed that your South Africa story is immoral for propagating a racist trope for your own entertainment, which could lead to confirming people's negative biases about South Africa and the (implied in your comment) racial conflict there. As far as lying in general goes: you may be triggering conversation you find interesting, but have you considered the effect your lies have on the people who read your comments, believing they're truthful? You're giving people false confidence in your totally-made-up opinions thinking they're expert testimony. That can be harmful if people internalise the lies you tell and act based upon them. Not that anybody's making a framework out of just your posted comments, but we all absorb and interpret the information we take in and that can affect our perspectives. As for whether I lie on the internet? No, and I don't get the appeal. If I want to trigger an interesting conversation, I don't feel the need to pretend to be somebody I'm not: I can just ask pertinent questions or state my actual perspective and bring about conflicting replies that way.