Bullshit

Bullshit

1. A blatant lie, a fragrant untruth, an obvious fallacy,

Or just the excrement of cattle.

“I smell something…

Is it a dog? No…

Is it a horse? No…

I know, It’s BULLSHIT!”

1) noun. Stuff that is made up for the purpose of placating someone, or passing an exam, or getting elected to office. Most often false or ridiculous.

2) verb. To generate bullshit.

3) interjection. Accusing someone of bullshitting.

4) adjective. Identifying or suspecting something as bullshit.

- The Urban Dictionary

A little while ago I heard of a book called, On Bullshit. A review of the book reads:

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. [emphasis mine]

Who Dr. Frankfurt calls “bullshitters,” I have always called “bullshit artists.” It has been my sad experience to have occasionally trusted them. Now I avoid them if at all possible.

Unfortunately, we have had a bullshit artist par excellence as President for the last seven and a half years with the result of a country teetering on the brink. Of course, all politicians generally are bullshit artists, it is part of the job description, but some shovel it much more than others or at least in a good cause like Bernie Sanders, my favorite senator. The key is to know shit from shinola.

Then there are times they just make it easy for us. Karl Rove commented on the Palin pick, “[it was] not a governing decision, but a campaign decision.” Indeed.

With Palin, they start with blatant sex appeal. Her selection adds another dimension to the phrase “firing up the base.” It’s wildly successful with the number one comment of Palin in the right side of the blogosphere being, “She’s hot!”

But since they’re Republicans and conservatives, having those impure thoughts cannot be expressed forthrightly, but must be left as naughty undertones and innuendos, and so her public persona starts with the Mother myth. Millions of working moms feel a reflexive identification.

She’s given a speech written by someone else for a man so that it had to be reworked for her, which she delivers with such snarky gusto showing that, yes indeed, she can shovel the bullshit with the best of the boys. Too which the fans went wild! All the High Mucky-mucks of Bullshit, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, O’Rielly, and all the lesser demigods hail her magnificent bullshit delivery of bullshit.

On the way out of town, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager told us this, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” In other words, Rick is telling us this election is about bullshit.

Damn, what bullshit.

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McCain, Republicans Desperate

Obviously, John McCain is desperate with his pick of Sarah Palin as VPILF, I mean Vice President. I thought he had to go with Huckabee for the Hagee/Dobson/Fundie vote, but this will work out just fine for them. She's a very hardline fundamentalist. James Dobson probably danced a jig.

By the way, did you see McCain checking out her ass? Here's a good YouTube clip. Very funny.

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