Bullshit
From RationalWiki
| For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Bullshit. |
- Not to be confused with Bereshit[1] (Hebrew:בראשית), which literally translates to "In the beginning".
Bullshit is the art of deceit through obfuscation. There's a lot of it, and it's generally an indicator that you are trying to mislead and/or you don't know what you're talking about.
Contents |
[edit] Bullshitting
Bullshitting is, in a way, an art form. It's not exactly lying as when you're bullshitting you may in fact be telling the truth in a completely slanted or useless form, or you may simply be saying nothing at all. This can be seen whenever Andrew Schlafly of Conservapedia faces people with genuine qualifications and needs to quickly find an excuse to make an expert seem wrong and him to seem right. Mostly, Andy isn't very good at this.
Bullshitting on the internet is becoming easier due to the prevalence of google and wikipedia. Someone posting on the internet has more than enough time between posts to type whatever they want to talk about into google or wikipedia and appear as an immediate genius to others reading the post. The drawback to this, is that everyone can do it, so someone with a genuine knowledge of a subject can still tend to win out.
A BA in English is essentially a BA in Bullshit. Unlike Schlafly, English majors are quite adept with the application of bullshit in daily discourse. As Sir Phillip Sidney said in The Defence of Poesy regarding nature, "Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden." In other words, English majors can only partake in a bullshit interpretation of reality, but they can also turn that bullshit to gold.[2]
[edit] Bullsh!t
Bullsh!t is a skeptical television show on the Showtime network hosted by magicians Penn & Teller. The original series concentrated on debunking crank ideas from ESP to alternative medicine. While well-received by the skeptical community, it has been criticized for the presenters' tendency to let their libertarian politics interfere with their rationalist message, for instance, with the episodes "Prostitution" and "Drugs". Later series concentrated less on actual crank practices, and more on concepts such as "family values" or "profanity", although some basic crank-refuting remained, such as episodes on cryptozoology and New Age Medicine. It's still fun to watch, although nothing is funnier than an angry fat man and a mute doing magic tricks.
[edit] Real bullshit
Bullshit is also the solid waste material from Bos taurus (cattle) of the male persuasion. It is not nice to step in, but makes good fertilizer.
[edit] Flies
Real shit attracts insects such as the shoo-fly.
Bullshit attracts insects such as the schla-fly (also known as the common Assfly).
[edit] Isms
There are bullshit terms tossed around by those who don't like reality. These are generally terms which have a real base word, but adds the suffix "-ism" to express that the idea must be a philosophical or religious notion. Such isms include scientism and Darwinism. When someone uses such terms, they are going to be bullshitting you.
[edit] Card game
Bullshit is a card game played with standard decks of cards. Also known as BS, I Doubt It, Liar!, Cheat or Cheater! The object of the game is to discard all the cards in a player's hand before the other players, and without getting caught bullshitting. For fewer players, one deck can be used, but for more than six players, multiple decks can be used.
Players discard, face down, in the order of ranks of cards, from the "Ace" to "King", as many of that rank of cards as they say, into a general discard pile in the middle of the players. The first player to play calls out how many "Aces" he is discarding, and puts that many cards face down into the discard pile. Any other player at the table may, before the next player discards, call "bullshit!" The player who calls "bullshit!" then looks at the cards just discarded to see whether the count and rank are accurate. If the count and rank are inaccurate, the player reveals the cards to all and the player caught bullshitting picks up all discards and adds them to his hand. If the player who called the "bullshit!" is wrong, he instead picks up the discard pile and adds it to his hand.
If a player successfully bullshits the other players with his discard and the next player discards, he gets away with his deception. Even if later he is caught bullshitting, he gets no penalty from the missed bullshit opportunity.
Play continues clockwise, the ranks increasing until the rank of "King" is reached. The player after "King" then starts the ranks again at "Ace".
When a player has successfully discarded his hand entirely, and is not caught bullshitting his last discard, he is out of the current hand. He cannot call "Bullshit!" anymore during the hand, but he also cannot be forced to pickup the discards.
Some house rules include allowing the use of the Jokers as "wild cards," and having a maximum number of discard pickups before being eliminated. Players should discover which method they enjoy playing Bullshit for maximum fun, as there is no organized play or official rules for the stupid, childish game.
[edit] Recommended reading
- Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit by Laura Penny
- Frankfurt, Harry G., On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 2005, ISBN 0691122946.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Where to find the word "Bereshit"
- ↑ http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/sidneydefense_of_poesy.htm
