"Bullshit" is a 2005 book (originally a 1986 essay) by American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt which presents a theory of bullshit that defines the concept and analyzes the applications of bullshit in the context of communication.
Frankfurt determines that bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth. The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullshitter doesn't care if what they say is true or false.
Frankfurt's philosophical analysis of bullshit has been analyzed, criticized and adopted by academics since its publication.
Monday, September 18, 2023
BULLSHIT, THE BOOK
Tuesday, September 05, 2023
TRUMP'S LATEST SCAM GETS A REPRIEVE
Merger for Trump’s Truth Social avoids collapse as proposed investment partner, facing liquidation, wins reprieve from shareholders
Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, the would-be investment partner of former president Donald Trump’s media start-up, voted to approve an extension of the company’s merger deadline and give it more time to complete the deal, Digital World said Tuesday. The extension, granted three days before Digital World would have been required to liquidate, will give the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, another year to finalize its merger with Trump Media & Technology Group. -- WAPO
Care to guess who the major stockholders are?
ENGLISH SENSIBILITY
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
-Nate White
Monday, September 04, 2023
HOW TO LOSE A GENERAL ELECTION
“If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” -- Donald Trump, on Truth Social.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced what it would take to win her vote to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. The demands includes passing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, defunding his “weaponization of government,” eliminating funding for Covid-related mandates and cutting off new aid for Ukraine.
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“He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something. I tell you, I think he’d be very good.” -- Donald Trump, talking to Glenn Beck about possibly picking Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate.
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Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Wants to Run the Government Like Elon Musk
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“I’ve probably been called the N word more times in the last two-and-a-half years than most — a hundred people combined.” — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, quoted by WSB-TV.
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Would you, co-moderator Martha MacCallum asked DeSantis, support sending American Special Forces over the southern border to take out the cartels that produce fentanyl [...]
“Yes,” he replied confidently. “And I will do it on Day One.”
“Would I use force? Would I treat them as foreign terrorist organizations? You’re damn right I would,” he continued.
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Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) “spent the weekend amplifying unfounded allegations by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars that the President Joe Biden administration was preparing to impose new Covid-related lockdowns this fall,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
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Fox News host Laura Ingraham even wondered aloud on Tuesday whether the U.S. could still claim to be better than the Soviet Union, given the indictments against Trump. Yes, really. -- RELIABLE SOURCES
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“Just Say That the Election Was Corrupt, and Leave the Rest to Me” -- Donald Trump
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By many measures, Americans have lost their sense of community and voluntary civic engagement — what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “science of association” that was the source of the country’s strength. The combined effects of social media and the pandemic have left us isolated — and hungering for our lost civic ties. But you can’t rebuild community in a news desert. -- Dana Milbank Aug 11, 2023. WAPO
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This week, Salem Radio host Charlie Kirk called for President Joe Biden to either be "put in prison" or given "the death penalty" for supposed "crimes against America."
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Florida’s Department of Education has approved classroom use of videos that spout climate disinformation and distort climate science, Scientific American reports.
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“Donald Trump is a long, long way from winning the GOP primary, let alone retaking the White House. But he always has revenge on his mind, and his allies are preparing to use a future administration to not only undo all of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s work — but to take vengeance on Smith, and on virtually everyone else, who dared investigate Trump during his time out of power,” -- Rolling Stone
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Nearly a year after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, about $9 million in aid raised by Casey DeSantis for her relief campaign still hasn’t been spent, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.
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“Trump’s political action committee, which began last year with $105 million, now has less than $4 million left in its account after paying tens of millions of dollars in legal fees for Mr. Trump and his associates.” -- NYT
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Supreme Court Approval at Record Low
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Justice Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that Congress has no authority to regulate the Supreme Court.
Said Alito: “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it… No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”
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“There was a time when even a fraction of Donald Trump’s record of lawlessness and depravity would have shattered a person’s political career, rendered his party ashamed of its association with him, and left him humiliated and seeking forgiveness. But that day is long gone, at least if you’re a Republican.” -- Peter Wehner
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Polling released by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday found that only 5% of respondents who get their news from Fox News believe that Trump has "committed serious federal crimes," with an overwhelming 91% saying he has not done so. Meanwhile, 83% of Fox News-watching respondents believe that after the 2020 election, Trump "was just exercising his right to contest the" results. And, perhaps most importantly, 85% of Republican-leaning poll participants who primarily watch Fox News say the GOP needs to "stand behind" Trump. ....Of course, Fox settle[d] Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million over US election lies
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The leadership political action committee founded by Donald Trump paid $108,000 to Melania Trump’s stylist in the first six months of 2023 for “strategy consulting,” the Daily Beast reports.
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Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6. Mike Pence told Fox News that Donald Trump personally asked him to “literally reject votes” on January 6.
Said Pence: “Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes which would have resulted in the issue of being turned over to the house of representatives.”
He added: “They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.”
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“A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law. That sounds loony, except in the topsy-turvy world of Donald Trump, where it has a grotesque logic.” --Maureen Dowd
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A new CNN poll finds that 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners say Joe Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and through last fall, even as there is no evidence of election fraud that would have altered the outcome of the contest.
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“Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Reuters reports. This will cost taxpayers millions & millions more in interest payments
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“During [ the ] Republican primary debate, Ron DeSantis [ ... ] promised that, under his presidency, Mexican drug cartels would be “shot stone cold dead,” and vowed that when it comes to federal bureaucrats, “we are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”
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OPINION: A MODEST PROPOSAL
As of late it has become obvious, if it wasn't before, that more white nationalists are hunting and murdering black people simply because of their color. Maybe it's time for the Black Panthers, heavily armed, as is their right, to make a reappearance -- as they did in the 60's -- to remind those that hunt them, that retribution is possible and deadly. That might change the current socio/political equation.
For more information on the Black Panther Party, click here or here or here.
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