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Aeon has an interesting article on bullshit:
We live in the age of information, which means that we also live in the age of misinformation. Indeed, you have likely come across more bullshit so far this week than a normal person living 1,000 years ago would in their entire lifetime. If we were to add up every word in every scholarly piece of work published prior to the Enlightenment, this number would still pale in comparison with the number of words used to promulgate bullshit on the internet in the 21st century alone.
If you find your head nodding, start shaking it. I’m bullshitting you.
Ha! I knew it!
How could I possibly know how much bullshit you have come across this week? What if you’re reading this on a Sunday? Who is a ‘normal’ person living 1,000 years ago? And how could I know how much bullshit they had to deal with?
It was very easy to construct this bullshit. Once I set out to impress rather than inform, a burden was lifted from my shoulders and placed onto yours. My opening statements could very well be true, but we have no way of knowing. Their truth or falsity were irrelevant to me, the bullshitter.
[...] In his book, On Bullshit (2005), Frankfurt noted that ‘most people are rather confident of their ability to recognise bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it’. However, more than 98 per cent of our participants rated at least one item in our bullshit receptivity scales to be at least somewhat profound. We are not nearly as good at detecting bullshit as we think.
So, how might you – the reader – vaccinate yourself against it? For a non-spiritualist, it might be relatively easy to recognise when Chopra or Oz are concerned less with the truth than selling books or entertaining viewers. But think back to my opening paragraph. Bullshit is much harder to detect when we want to agree with it. The first and most important step is to recognise the limits of our own cognition. We must be humble about our ability to justify our own beliefs. These are the keys to adopting a critical mindset – which is our only hope in a world so full of bullshit.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 20 2018, @03:45AM (31 children)
Understand something about bullshitters: if a liar is Truth's rapist, a bullshitter is Truth's impotent, morbidly-obese, unwashed, bestial pimp.
The liar at least cares for the Truth in a backwards sort of way; the bullshitter will say anything, whether it be true or false or some combination, so long as it suits his purposes. This is an order of magnitude worse than a liar, because the liar at least indirectly relies on the truth, if only as a negative baseline. The bullshitter depends on people losing their epistemological compass, on not even being able to distinguish truth from falsehood, and the really malignant ones will purposefully mix them in misleading ways. Liars deceive minds; bullshitters destroy them.
Now, the US hit critical bullshit mass a good while back, long before I was born. But in the last couple of years, the bullshit golems, forgive the mental image, have started marching en masse. And this is why, and what, I fight.
We have less than a dozen here, but they are spewing a particularly toxic form of bullshit that has the potential to convert anyone whose mind it's in contact with too long into another carrier, a secondary vector for their cognitohazardous toxic waste. These are the self-styled "libertarians," the ones who think jettisoning their moral machinery turns them into ubermenschen, the ones who've had the so-called "dark enlightenment," the ones who prey on those in pain and their resentment, luring them with fallacious sloganeering and superficially-attractive Randian effluent.
They live by category errors and deliberate, willful, prideful, solipsistic ignorance, retreating into self-deification and sealing their own minds behind them. Everything, and everyone, becomes just another tool or convenience, another disposable means to an end.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @04:40AM
"You wanna quoote? Put me on teevee!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlt3rA-oDao [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @04:55AM (10 children)
But they sound so confident! I wish I had such convictions. There must be something to what they say or their conscience would prevent them right?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 20 2018, @06:58PM (9 children)
You forgot your sarc mark. I get your point entirely, but that's part and parcel of the moral Dunning-Krugeroma they've collectively got growing in what passes for their brains: it never occurs to them they might be wrong because that's not something their worldview accounts for. Uzzard just made a journal entry wherein he more or less declared perpetual war on the rest of humanity, in effect saying "anyone who disagrees with me is evil."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 20 2018, @07:18PM (8 children)
Pot, meet kettle.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:05AM (7 children)
Bzzzzt! Wrong-a-bloody-gain! I'm not the one writing journal entries about how anyone who disagrees with me is evil, shithead.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:43AM (6 children)
No, but you certainly make plenty of posts that say the very same thing. Re-read the post to which I am responding. I simply can't imagine the 'Zumi character ever reflecting on her opinions, decisions, and positions, and seriously questioning whether she might be wrong. She has her dogma, and nothing can shake that dogma. Which is to be expected of a Catholic who has rejected the church's dogma, to be replaced with another.
Again, Pot, meet Kettle.
It has just occurred to me that 'Zumi is probably more of a conservative than I am!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:51AM (5 children)
Just because you can't imagine something doesn't make it impossible, Runaway. You've fossilized in your cranky old age and you wouldn't make even the barest effort to understand me even if I tried to get you to, which I've little interest in doing at this point.
If this means anything to you, at the age of 9 a nun spat "You...you filthy little PROTESTANT!" at me after a few instances of intense questioning about why the Bible says X when she said Y :) So I've always had this inquisitive, pardon the choice of word in context, streak to me.
Do I hold my positions and opinions strongly? Absolutely yes, mostly because I've tested them over and over and they hold. Are they dogma? No. And you think that because you work that way, I must too. Solipsism again. Well, I can't do anything about your personal intellectual and moral deficiencies except point them out, and protest when I'm being slandered.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @07:25AM (4 children)
I work what way? Dogmatically? Oh, FFS, you're blinder than a bat. Maybe that's part of the reason you're batshit crazy? On second thought - this could be funny. Oh, Please, Oh wise 'Zumi, please, please, please, tell us all what my doctrine or faith is. Just what do YOU believe that I believe? I beseech the Oracle for illumination!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:51PM (3 children)
At this point I don't care what you believe, you senile old bat. You're going to die in less than 10 years anyway, and in all that time, you've never had anything useful to say. Why would I think you'd start now?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:45PM (2 children)
Ever the cruel and heartless bitch. Except, I can only sit here laughing at you.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:20PM (1 child)
Awwww, did the big tough macho Navy man get his pwecious fee-fees hurt? Don't worry; if you think THAT was a nasty burn, just wait until you actually DO die.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 22 2018, @02:39AM
No, silly, the funny part is - you'll probably remember flapping your gums at me when it is your turn.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by khallow on Friday July 20 2018, @12:44PM (11 children)
I have little to say on the alleged classification, virulence, and contagiousness of bullshit except to say that it can be more humorous than the story claimed. You showed that.
Dark enlightenment [wikipedia.org] != libertarian. People willing to eschew democracy (a key tenet of the "Neoreaction" theory) aren't libertarian by definition. And it's worth mentioning that though apparently former libertarians have joined Neoreactionary theory, that doesn't mean the two theories are equivalent. People change their minds all the time. And some people hop around various ideologies. It doesn't mean that the past ideologies they dallied with are the same as the present ones.
Contrary to your assertion, being libertarian means accepting that others will have (not merely could have) different viewpoints, including viewpoints hostile to libertarianism. For example, the common tenet of non-initiation of force means that peaceful means to persuade others are acceptable while using the power of the state to compel others to superficially support ideological points is not. Neoreactionary theory on the other hand has the usual "I know best" condescension of many ideologies created in the past two centuries both with a strong dependence on merely asserting things (for example, at a glance I see that the Wikipedia article quotes an adherent as claiming aristocratic systems are more efficient than democratic or communist systems) and a willful ignorance of the various ways their ideology can break down in practice (such as ignoring the history of France prior to the French revolution).
Ultimately, it's the weakness of present day democratic systems that fuels ideologies like "dark enlightenment". So many are remarkably uninterested in solving the problems that power these movements.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 20 2018, @07:00PM (10 children)
How dare you sit here and post as if you aren't one of the major problems on this site. You've reduced yourself to nothing but Uzzard's echo-bot.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @07:22PM (2 children)
such a hateful wench
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:04AM
Aww, I'm sorry cupcake, did I make you cry? What is it like to be so weak that the words of a woman you've never even met, displayed on a screen, are so deeply hurtful to you?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 21 2018, @06:35PM
Well, khallow is just like that: a hateful, whiny wench.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:16AM (6 children)
Sorry, I too would like to think that it takes some sort of extraordinary courage to face down blowhards on the internets. But it doesn't.
Thank you for the promotion, but again, I must apologize. I think your idea of "problem" has been watered down to uselessness.
Well, he has done a bit more to earn my respect and we happen to be of similar outlook.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @05:53AM (5 children)
Thanks for illustrating my point so very nicely. The one good part about dealing with you self-satisfied jackoffs is you're always willing to double down on your own utter lack of basic humanity in public.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 21 2018, @11:55AM (4 children)
No problem. You're doing all the work.
Indeed. But who is showing the "utter lack of basic humanity"?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:53PM (3 children)
Uh, you are. Hallow, this "I know you are but what am I" game only works if the other person actually is in the wrong. You can try and play it, but anyone watching you and who's ever read your post history knows I'm spot-on about this. Which makes your behavior even worse, as it now also includes insulting the intelligence of every single person who reads your posts.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Sunday July 22 2018, @12:21AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 22 2018, @03:44AM (1 child)
No, there isn't, for the simple reason that we don't work anything alike. And, again, you can't win by accusing someone else of what you yourself are guilty of. I have my own faults, but they lie in being overly-serious and sometimes positively wrathful. This kind of human-Klein-bottle yoga posing isn't one of them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 22 2018, @12:37PM
Indeed, we can see that right in this thread. Projection isn't about working alike. And just because you say that you recognize that we don't work alike doesn't mean that you actually do. Once again, words aren't actions.
In other words, being an immature brat who insists on entangling innocent people in their ridiculous narratives.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 20 2018, @02:47PM (1 child)
That was beautifully put.
I remember back in the early days of the Internet I was contemplating what direction to take in my graduate studies, and the effect of the Internet on society was one I considered. I remember reading speculation from the handful of scholars who were thinking about the same thing at the time, wherein they argued that the ubiquity of information would overwhelm our ability to think critically and produce a world where everyone discounts fact and decides everything based on their gut. It seems they were right, at least in part.
Me, I believe the cause in the spike of bullshit you're talking about is generated by a huge set of facts, of reality, that is unbearable. Limbically, experientially, we have the fact that the social, political, and economic systems we've been using for the last 2, 300 years are broken. We all know it. But instead of resolving ourselves to the hard work of coming up with something new, we spew all kinds of bullshit and finger-pointing to avoid it.
Yes, we should practice critical thinking. It is intellectual armor against deception. But it's not enough to just do that, and nothing else. We also must call things what they are, by their painful, searing true names. Lastly, we need to pick up our tools and build a better vessel to carry us forward.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday July 20 2018, @04:53PM
Perhaps one of the best things we could do to fight bullshit is to cultivate a love of learning in our children - pretty much the exact opposite of the rote memorization and training our education system rewards. I know when I get into a discussion I will quite often spend a half-hour or more composing a post, simply because I'm looking up enough information to voice a strong position and flesh out the details - as much to myself as anyone else. The discussion is a good excuse to go learn some random stuff because it's fun to do. And I have quite often run into important details that have completely derailed my argument. Which can sometimes be quite unsettling if the argument is based on internalized "truths", but that has it's own thrill, like hiking through unfamiliar terrain and having the ground crumble beneath you: recovering your mental balance may be stressful, but that was a heck of a recovery, and now I understand the world a little bit better.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be internalized is that your understanding of the universe is always and inevitably wrong, in many ways large and small. And you'll never know which ideas are wrong until you confront evidence to the contrary, because until that moment, being wrong feels exactly like being right.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 20 2018, @03:28PM
Both a deliberate willful lie and incorrect information are bullshit. Just different flavors of bullshit.
The liar is one who is deliberately creating or repeating misinformation.
The ignorant or unformed is merely repeating misinformation that they don't realize is misinformation.
I saw an interview with a woman, a Trump supporter. She believed, and really believed, that Trump would solve health care. Okay, fair enough. When questioned further she insisted that he would make health care better, cheaper, while lowering taxes, and not increasing the deficit.
Now unless she knows of some new math that makes addition and subtraction work differently, or of some other magical pile of money somewhere, I think she is misinformed.
Which is worse? The person who innocently believes and repeats such misinformation? Or the person who created it and told it to her in the first place?
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 20 2018, @05:14PM (3 children)
Can you tell the difference between a useful idiot and a paid-for professional?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 20 2018, @07:00PM (2 children)
A paycheck
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday July 20 2018, @11:16PM (1 child)
The presence of which will sorta deny the "solipsistic ignorance" you accuse them of.
Are you sure some here don't receive one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:16AM
The two aren't always mutually exclusive, I suppose. Someone can be receiving a paycheck to do the troll-bidding of, e.g., the Russians and be partly or wholly unaware of how much damage they're doing.
That said, I'm pretty sure our resident mobile moral cognitohazards aren't drawing a paycheck for their continued corrosion of the minds and hearts of all who will listen. No, they all seem to be doing it out of the badness of their hearts, as it were, or put another way, "out of the heart's abundance the mouth speaketh."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...