We are awash in a rising tide of bullshit. Not ankle deep or even (waste?) deep, it’s to our shoulders and there’s no sign that bullshit will ebb any time soon.
The definition of bullshit is “indifference to how things really are,” according to Harry Frankfurt, who wrote an essay on bullshit in 1986. It was bad enough then, and the problem has only grown worse in the last 35 years.
We all know this. We are very ready to point out that viewpoints other than our own are, in fact, just bullshit. That those who have those viewpoints say the same about us is just more evidence of how full of bullshit they really are. That’s the miraculous thing about bullshit. It sustains and grows itself!
Given that bullshit is such a rich fertilizer, it’s discouraging but no surprise that it’s become an industry unto itself. The bullshit economy is self-sustaining. The reason is that though it may not be nutritious, bullshit is very satisfying. We The People crave bullshit, and not just by the spoonful. We scoop it up wherever we find it and consume it as if it were honey-laced ambrosia.
While I might not like the bullshit spewed by Tucker Carlson, I have to acknowledge the New York Washington Post Times peddles an amazing amount of bullshit too. It’s just a flavor I prefer.
So, given our insatiable craving, the NYT and WP and Fox go every day to the bullshit mine and come back with huge piles of steaming bullshit to sell to Americans who can’t tell the difference between bullshit and ice cream and are willing to pay real dollars as long as the bullshit we purchase is a flavor we know and love, be it Liberal Fecalla or Conservative Crapolla.
Of course, politicians traffic in bullshit. It’s really about all they have to sell. They aren’t going to be long in office if they admit corporations pay them to spew bullshit in the hope that no one will notice how deep those corporate hands have plunged into our pockets. When caught, they just tell us they were leaving gold coins there, which of course, is bullshit.
The only difference between most politicians is who their customers might be. I’m not buying a bullshit burger from Texas Ted Cruz, but might accept a bullshit bagel from New Yorker Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. I have friends who would say the opposite. Which means, of course, they just like bullshit.
They say the same about me. Which is just bullshit. Now there’s even more flooding about, and the rising tide of bullshit floats all our boats.
*Written with heavy debt to the Economist Newspaper’s “Why bullshit rules in Brussels”