Category: Bullshit
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Kimball on Kolakowski on Marxism as a Bogus Form of Religion
I have argued time and again that Marxism is not a religion. But many have a burning need so to misunderstand it. What the great Kolakowski says below reinforces me in the correctness of my opinion. As for Fredric Jameson, whom Roger Kimball discusses in his Guilt of the Intellectuals, I haven't read him and…
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Past-Directed Gaslighting
An egregious example of present-directed gaslighting of the American people by the regime and the regime media is their dismissal of the numerous videos depicting Joe Biden's physical decrepitude as 'cheap/deep fakes.' What then are we to call the lie being currently spread by the regime and its shills that Kamala Harris was never the…
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Big Mouth Barack
His "mean-spirited nonsense deserves a Fisking." And receives it here. I haven't seen 'fisking' in a long time. It has fallen into desuetude. Filed under: bullshit
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Jacques Derrida on 9/11
John Searle famously remarked that Derrida gives bullshit a bad name. Striking indeed is the French penchant for pseudo-literary vaporosity. "Something" took place, we have the feeling of not having seen it coming, and certain consequences undeniably follow upon the "thing." But this very thing, the place and meaning of this "event," remains ineffable, like…
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Bullshitting and Lying
Top o' the Stack.
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Medicare for All?
Some of the Democrat candidates for president are calling for Medicare for all, in those terms. The call makes no sense. Medicare is a U. S. government program for American citizens 65 years of age and older. (There are minor exceptions that don't affect my main point.) Now even Democrats know that not every citizen…
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Lie or Exaggeration or Bullshit? Politics in an Age of Bullshit
A redacted re-post from 30 November 2016 ……………………………….. Over the weekend, Donald Trump bragged in signature style that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Lefties are calling the statement a lie. But it is no such thing. In the typical case, a lie is a false…
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Climate Bluster
He who does not know is inclined to pretend. A world of ignorance is a world of bluster. One species thereof is climate bluster. "The science is settled!" It is not. What is settled, but only among leftists, is climate ideology. What drives the ideology is hostility to individual liberty and its sine qua non,…
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The Trouble with Continental Philosophy: Badiou
In a missive this morning London Ed reports, "Badiou was awful, and not sure there is anything coherent that can be said about a writer so incoherent. He goes on for a chapter or so about history, then says ‘there is no such thing as history’." Ed's comment put me in mind of an entry…
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Jacques Derrida on 9/11
John Searle famously remarked that Derrida gives bullshit a bad name. Striking indeed is the French penchant for pseudo-literary vaporosity. "Something" took place, we have the feeling of not having seen it coming, and certain consequences undeniably follow upon the "thing." But this very thing, the place and meaning of this "event," remains ineffable, like…
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Alberto Brandolini’s Bullshit Asymmetry Principle and Vallicella’s First and Second Corollaries
Here: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. The pseudo-precision of 'energy' and 'order of magnitude' aside — in what units is this 'energy' measured ? — the idea is a good one. Vallicella's First Corollary: The amount of effort needed to grade and…
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Test Your Bullshit Detector Against the . . .
Turbo Encabulator! (HT: Dave Bagwill) Companion post: There is no Truth, Only Bullshit
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Lie or Exaggeration or Bullshit? Politics in the Age of Bullshit
Over the weekend, Donald Trump bragged in signature style that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Lefties are calling the statement a lie. But it is no such thing. In the typical case, a lie is a false statement made with the intention to deceive. In…
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There is No Truth, Only Bullshit
Thus the Dustin Hoffman character in Hero. "There ain't no truth; all there is, is bullshit." (HT: Vlastimil V.) This very short video clip would be a good way to get your intro to phil students thinking about truth. Some questions/issues: 1. Is it true that there is no truth? If yes, there there is…
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Obama as Bullshitter
While listening the other day to Barack Obama shuck and jive about fiscal responsiblity, shamelessly posturing as if he and not his Republican opponents is the fiscally responsible one, when he is in truth the apotheosis or, if you prefer, the Platonic Form of fiscal irresponsibility, I realized just how uncommonly good our POMO Prez…