Bullshit versus lying

Let's revisit this distinction again for much bullshit abounds once again

I touched on this theme in a post some time back, but I feel it would be useful to plant it here again. Bullshitty slipperiness seems to be on the up and up. The US election and the first murmurings of an Australian election cycle is “triggering” the bad faith operators to draw on their dodgy tactics. I’ve been following Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s malicious and truth-flagrant outbursts about Palestinian refugees…this 7am podcast provides a good explainer.¹

Our societal descent into bullshit also fits with the picture painted by experts of complex civilisations on the brink (see this post here for the full explainer). Being able to spot bullshit, call it out and navigate it is crucial in most settings today, particularly in the context of collapse awareness. I note that Jack Dorsey recently came out saying the same.

Bullshit is more dangerous than lying

In 2005 Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt published the book On Bullshit (originally an essay written in 1986) in which he argued that bullshit is more dangerous than lying, and that when a society is bog-full of bullshit it causes its people untold moral pain.

The difference between bullshit and lying is that people who are lying are at least still tethered to the truth. Liars, for instance, consider the truth before they conceal it. They are aware of it as they lie and to this extent they still engage with truth.

Bullshitters, on the other hand, completely disregard the truth. They don’t care if what they say is true or false.

Bullshitters have a disregard for the value of truth as a fundamental value in our society. They care only whether they get their own way by persuading others to their camp.

Bullshit is insidious. It’s slippery. And much harder to combat than lying. With a lier, at least they have a connection to truth and perhaps can be hauled back to it via rational discussion.

Bullshitters… well, they just don’t care.

Frankfurt argues that while bullshit can occasionally be true, it muddies the information ecology so much that it undermines truth itself.

Comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” a while back, which touches on a similar phenomenon. Colbert confected the word to describe the Bush administration’s tendency to fudge the facts in its favour. Truthiness is very distinct from truthfulness.

Truthiness. Bullshitting. Obfuscating. Gaslighting…the are all bad faith tactics. Bullshitters and gaslighters are crazy-making because they’re impossible to reason with. They do not connect with solid ground and are intentionally slippery. They will happily shift the point, the focus, the intention, of a debate. They don’t care about such things. They only care about winning.

These tactics are society-destroying. They’re solution-distracting. They’re debate-deviating. They’re fact-discombobulating.

Why so much bullshit now?

Bullshit is certainly on the rise. I first wrote about it at the height of former Australian PM Scott Morrison’s bullshitty reign (think: submarine deal cop-outs). Boris Johnston and Donald Trump were also circulating large amounts of bullshit (think: “Flood the zone with shit!”). Bullshit was increasingly being used by these disappointing and dangerous leaders in the climate debate, in the gender wars, race discussions and pretty much whenever something cropped up that threatened their precarious hold on power.

Which gives us a clue to why so much of it right now.

White, colonialist patriarchy is being fundamentally threatened and those who’ve benefited from the old regime don’t want the change. They also lack the emotional and moral maturity to process what is going on in a way that is progressive and beneficial to even themselves (for, patriarchy is destructive and painful for everyone). And they lack these skills, I believe, because they haven’t had to develop them. Moral wisdom comes most readily when we are forced to go down into hardship, or when we are cast out or relegated to minority status. These institutionally privileged white, old, rich men aren’t taken to this space throughout their lives.

And so, at junctures like this in history, they can but doggedly and dangerously defend their precarious perch on the pedestal with ludicrous and cringy unreasonableness. And bullshit.

It’s desperate stuff, for their fundamental worth and survival is at stake (to this extent I get it and can muster some compassion). There are many Freudian, and perhaps Jungian, perspectives that can be taken on this…

Mostly, though, I’m reminded of a toddler when they are threatened. Without the emotional maturity to absorb the blows that reality serves them, they lash out with blame and bullshit in a crude, base, primal way. They throw their toys from the cot.

No sure why I put this image here. But it is a bit bullshitty.

How can we beat bullshit?

It’s impossible to argue with a bullshitter. It’s like seeking genuine empathy from a narcissist. However, once the tactic of bullshitting is understood for what it is, it can be exposed quietly via the brilliance and desirability of radical truthfulness.

Back when I first wrote about bullshit, I flagged that truth "is going to become the new way”, which feeds into the second chapter of my book serialisation, which you can catch up on here if you haven’t already (it’s free for everyone):

The first two chapters of my book: Hope and Relief

This is our mission - to be as truthful as possible. It’s a pathway not only for dealing with bullshit and bullshitters, but for navigating the increasing complexity of the crises that engulf us (and are caused by decades of defensive, planet-destroying bullshit).

You might like to revisit these two Wild episodes: This one with David Fuller who started the Rebel Wisdom community and was a leader in the “sensemaking” and metamodernist worlds (per yesterdays post). He discusses how to deal with truthiness:

And this one with Sara Ness, also a member of the Sensemaking community, on how to conduct yourself best in tricky bullshit situations:

Sarah xx

PS. A bit of an update on the Booktopia palaver (bullshit). Many of you in the subscriber community alerted me to the fact an online electronics retailer has bought the company. But alas it does not look like I’ll get my books or my money. Indeed, I’m told there is close to no chance. Here is a quote from the administrators of Booktopia: “I’m not expecting there to be a significant return at this stage … unless we can recover something out of the investigation as liquidator.” I’ll update you further once I know more.

1. Listen to the end. The last line reduced me to sobs.