Bullshit

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{{q|The enemy isn't liberalism, the enemy isn't conservatism, the enemy is bullshit.|Matt Welch}}
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'''Bullshit''' is the art of [[deceit]] through obfuscation. There's a lot of it, and it's generally an indicator that you are trying to mislead and/or you don't know what you're talking about.
 
'''Bullshit''' is the art of [[deceit]] through obfuscation. There's a lot of it, and it's generally an indicator that you are trying to mislead and/or you don't know what you're talking about.
  

Revision as of 04:59, 5 February 2009

"The enemy isn't liberalism, the enemy isn't conservatism, the enemy is bullshit." - Matt Welch

Bullshit is the art of deceit through obfuscation. There's a lot of it, and it's generally an indicator that you are trying to mislead and/or you don't know what you're talking about.

Contents

Bullshitting

Bullshitting is, in a way, an art form. It's not exactly lying as when you're bullshitting you may in fact be telling the truth in a completely slanted or useless form, or you may simply be saying nothing at all. This can be seen whenever Andrew Schlafly of Conservapedia faces people with genuine qualifications and needs to quickly find an excuse to make an expert seem wrong and him to seem right. Mostly, Andy isn't very good at this.

Bullshitting on the internet is becoming easier due to the prevalence of google and wikipedia. Someone posting on the internet has more than enough time between posts to type whatever they want to talk about into google or wikipedia and appear as an immediate genius to others reading the post. The drawback to this, is that everyone can do it, so someone with a genuine knowledge of a subject can still tend to win out.

A BA in English is essentially a BA in Bullshit. Unlike Schlafly, English majors are quite adept with the application of bullshit in daily discourse. As Sir Phillip Sidney said in The Defence of Poesy regarding nature, "Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden." In other words, English majors can only partake in a bullshit interpretation of reality, but they can also turn that bullshit to gold.[1]

Bullsh!t

Bullsh!t is a skeptical television show on the Showtime network hosted by magicians Penn & Teller. The original series concentrated on debunking crank ideas from ESP to alternative medicine. While well-received by the skeptical community, it has been criticized for the presenters' tendency to let their libertarian politics interfere with their rationalist message, for instance, with the episodes "Prostitution" and "Drugs". Later series concentrated less on actual crank practices, and more on concepts such as "family values" or "profanity", although some basic crank-refuting remained, such as episodes on cryptozoology and New Age Medicine. It's still fun to watch, although nothing is funnier than an angry fat man and a mute doing magic tricks.

Real bullshit

Bullshit is also the solid waste material from Bos taurus, (cattle) of the male persuasion. It is not nice to step in but makes good fertiliser.

Flies

Real shit attracts insects such as the shoo-fly.

Bullshit attracts insects such as the schla-fly (also known as the common Assfly).

Recommended reading

  • Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit by Laura Penny
  • Frankfurt, Harry G., On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 2005, ISBN 0691122946.

See also

Footnotes

  1. http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/sidneydefense_of_poesy.htm
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