article on bullshit

[Cairenn]

I also believe that US society is rife with communities walled off from each other by the cognitive bias of community members. We don't get our news from the same places, and people unreflectively pass among themselves half-truth jokes and claims that make their side seem wonderful, and the other side seem buffoonish at best and evil at worst. "Our country faces unmitigated disaster if the Other Side wins." [1]. This retreat into bubbles is destroying our ability to have rational discussions about many topics and to strike reasonable balances that can effectively address the real problems we face. The fact that, as Harry Frankfurt has said, "our society is awash in bullshit," does not help. I believe that clearly presented, unbiased information is an antidote and that Wikipedia is part of the solution when the five pillars are followed.

If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend Harry Frankfurt's book, "On Bullshit"", which you can read here[2], as well as his follow-up book, appropriately called "On Truth." In "On Bullshit" Frankfurt says bullshit is speech intended to persuade, without regard for truth, and he says: "Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

This is so important, I think. If we want to solve problems in the world, we have start by clearly seeing the facts - the truth - that define those problems and their causes. Where things are not fully explainable, and we are dealing with probabilities, that has to be clearly acknowledged. (Much bullshit is generated in claims of certainty, in cases where none can be had.) I find bullshit - this disregard for the messiness of the real world and its facts - all over the place. Both on the political right and on the political left. Wikipedia's Five Pillars are inherently anti-bullshit, which is why I love them.

Content from external source

https://athens.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf



I wasn't sure where to put this but there is a lot of truth in it