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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: 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.