BULLSHIT as the New Truth

Americans as anti-intellectual Intellectuals

Undecided Voters?  Really?

I’m sure you’ve heard them interviewed on news broadcasts or read about them in newspapers or even seen their posts on whatever idiotic, data-sucking social media site you frequent.  (In moments of boredom my go-to is Instagram—God help my soul.)  The so-called Undecided Voters.  Mostly, they say a lot of stupid shit.  Such as:

“I want to hear more details about Harris’ policies...” [gosh, try kamalaharris.com/issues]

“I want to see evidence that Harris will work across the aisle in a non-partisan manner...”

“I don’t like Trump’s personality, but Harris is too radical...”

“I voted last time and my candidate didn’t win...”

“I can’t say I’m super knowledgeable about the specifics of the economy, but from a how-our-family-is-feeling standpoint, I’m just not sure...”

“Trump and Republicans do a better job with the economy...” [oh, yeah?  “Letters from an American,” October 11, 2024]

“Harris did almost too well in the debate, almost like it was rehearsed...”

“I don’t want to piss away my vote so I’m leaning most toward Trump...”

“I was like, okay, who are these people?  They were like bad actors.  Kamala, suddenly she was so articulate when it’s usually word salad.  There was something weird going on there...”

“I’m still undecided whether it’s worth it to vote for Kamala, given her not-great stance on Palestine...” [need some context for that opinion?  SoldierGirl #29]

“Trump was cuckoo for saying that the dogs and cats were being eaten, but Kamala Harris wasn’t really answering any of the questions...” [gosh, try kamalaharris.com/issues]

“Does voting really do any good...” [got it covered, see “To Vote, or Not to Vote”]

To every one of these statements, a reasonable response is: “Have you been paying any attention, like, at all?”

This Undecided Voter shit drives me crazy.  Especially in this presidential election (and the last two, for that matter).  It’s not that I think all of the above statements necessarily are dumb (although several are pretty stupid).  It’s more that I find all of them, well, a bit on the knee-jerk side.  You know, automatic.  Pat answers.  As though the Undecided Voter needs say no more.

When in fact they need to say a lot fucking more.

And that leads me to the point of my Rant.

My Thesis and Roadmap

I’m going to be asserting three related ideas here.  First, digital technology has turned regular old run-of-the-mill random Bullshit into supersized widespread noxious BULLSHIT.  Second, the traditional American habit-of-mind is perfectly suited to be victimized by this new brand of BULLSHIT.  Third, Trump’s presidential bid combines these two social phenomena with potentially lethal results.

Clear enough, yeah?

First: From Bullshit to BULLSHIT

I’ve written previously about the phenomenon of Bullshit, mainly as it applies to the practice of satire (which calls bullshit on bullshit by bullshitting in a way the audience sees through and thus is educated and warned about the wiles of bullshitters) and news punditry (which just dishes out bullshit in a way designed to bamboozle the audience).  As an example of an extraordinary satirist who blows the whistle on bullshitters, I’ve analyzed the rhetorical stylings of Stephen Colbert.  As an example of an arch bullshitter who just lies his bow-tied ass off, I’ve analyzed the devious punditry of Tucker Carlson.

In the course of my comparison of the aims and methods of bullshitting as carried out by Colbert or by Carlson, I cite a treatise by Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt titled “On Bullshit.”  (The title itself stirs delight.)  Frankfurt’s definition of the practice of Bullshit is so incisive that it needs repeating here.

Frankfurt points out how a liar is most concerned with hiding the fact that he (I’ll just go ahead and use the gendering in the treatise) is attempting to lead us away from the truth.  A bullshitter, differently, is most concerned with hiding that “the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it.”  Frankfurt sums up the vital difference thus:   

For the bullshitter...all...bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false.  His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says.  He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly.  He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.  [emphases added]

This definition of Bullshit describes perfectly the “news” reported by Tucker Carlson, by Fox News, by Breitbart, by Newsmax, by X, by Truth Social, or by any number of other rightwing media sources.  Equally, Frankfurt’s definition of Bullshit aptly characterizes the political lies currently being mass produced by Trump, by JD Vance, and by MAGA Republicans in general.

Bullshitters have an agenda.  Period.  And they will say anything to further that agenda.

If bullshitters can toss in a few reality-morsels when articulating that agenda, great.  A spoonful of truth helps the lie go down.

But bullshitters care nothing for reality.  All they care about is throwing you off the scent of reality so they can lead you into their self-serving fantasyland.  The number one aim of bullshitters, then, is that you don’t see through their bullshit.

This is the formula, after all, for why a lot of Americans now believe that Haitians dine on dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.  Or that FEMA has abandoned hurricane victims in Florida and North Carolina.  Or that crime in America is at an all-time high.  Or that the American economy has apocalyptically tanked when, in fact, it’s never been stronger.  Or to be an “alpha male” and impress the ladies you have to vote for Trump.  Or the zombie hoard has crossed our southern border.  Or that tariffs are a genius idea and William McKinley (a shit president) was the greatest president of all time.  Or that convicted sex offender Trump is not only the Protector of Women but the Father of IVF.

All Bullshit.

(And, yes, of course the leftwing—or any political/social -wing—can and does use Bullshit—often politely called “spin”—to further its agenda.  But right now it’s Trump who’s on a seismic Bullshit tear.)

But here’s the rub, folks.

Frankfurt published “On Bullshit” in 1986.  Almost four decades ago.  And a lot has happened in four decades.  The Soviet Union collapsed.  Neoliberalism sunk its claws into the global order.  Y2K fizzled but A.I. is this close to running our lives.  And, maybe worst of all, data-glutton greed-bros unleashed the internet and social media on a credulous world.

Social media is Bullshit on steroids.

Social media has elevated Bullshit to BULLSHIT.

Social media has turned Bullshit from something to be on the lookout for to a plague of outright nonsense (that is, some bullshitter’s self-serving fantasyland) passing as the New Truth.

Moreover, Americans are walking willingly into the fan blades of this supercharged BULLSHIT.

Second: “Common Sense” as Our American Pathway to Half-Ass Thinking

By and large, I find many Americans to be anti-intellectual Intellectuals.

Here’s what I mean by this statement.

America tends toward being an anti-intellectual nation.  We have a long history of not liking trained thinkers and researchers.  In his 1966 study, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, historian Richard Hofstadter documents in American culture a “resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life.”  As a result of this dislike, Hofstadter locates a persistent attitude in Americans that:

intellectuals...are pretentious, conceited...and snobbish; and very likely immoral, dangerous, and subversive. ... The plain sense of the common man is an altogether adequate substitute for, if not actually much superior to, formal knowledge and expertise.

In short, we don’t really like “experts” explaining stuff to us.  It’s insulting.  Like, how dare you know more shit than me!  And our way to fight back against these obnoxious eggheads is to name “common sense” as our trusted guide in all things—no matter how complex the matter at hand.

During the vice presidential debate, JD Vance (Yale Law School grad, by the way) went all-in on this American character trait.  Simplifying out of existence the complex ingredients of inflation, Vance declared, “We’re going to get back to that common sense wisdom so that you can afford to live the American dream again.”  Experts be damned, JD’s going to wave his MAGA magic wand to make inflation “stop when Donald Trump brings back common sense to this country.”

Oh, happy days are here again!  Save us, MAGA gurus, from people who know what the hell they’re talking about!

Sounding like an anti-vaxxer, Vance took a shot at the medical professionals as well.  About the opioid crisis, he proclaimed, “We’re not going to stop [it] by listening to experts.  We’re going to stop it by listening to common sense wisdom, which is what Donald Trump governed on.”

Fuck doctors!  I’m putting my life in the hands of that very stable genius Donny Trump!

But just what the hell is “common sense” anyway?  Common to who?  Making sense in what way?  If you think about it, “common sense” is a phrase that means nothing at all.  Or it means so many things, depending on the listener, the “common” factor fades right out of sight.

In effect, then, the phrase “common sense” is a highly personalized compliment we pay to ourselves.

We hear the words and assume that the general wisdom implied by the term is pretty much everything we think and believe.  Our worldview.  How could it be anything else?

But did you see what JD Vance did there during the debate?  Did you notice the little trick he pulled?  The lawyerly switcheroo sleight-of-hand?

JD Vance substituted pure MAGA Bullshit for the idea of “common sense.”

As a Yale-trained expert, Vance attempted to convince us NOT to trust experts but to trust Trump.  What a perfect way to foist MAGA ideology onto Americans.  Convince us that Trump’s Bullshit is in fact just good-old-fashioned “common sense.”

It’s an evil genius strategy for appealing to a population of folks who tend to feel pretty damn good about being partially informed.

I suspect many Americans wear their “common sense” as a badge of pride.  As a way to feel worthy knowing only so much.  And I think a lot of Undecided Voters fall into this category.  Often I see Undecided Voters get a little embarrassed by the paucity of their rationale for opining what they opine.  Like they know their standpoints are shaky, not adequately thought through.  A lot of times, when pressed by an interviewer to elaborate on their position, Undecided Voters say (I suspect just to stop the questioning), “I need to do more research.”

Yet these Voters never strike me as anyone who has ever done much research in their lives.  Nor do they seem likely to carry out any before Election Day.

Meet the American anti-intellectual Intellectual.

Third: the Incantation of Repeated Bullshit

Social media specializes in feeding our taste for “common sense” and exploiting our American proclivity for believing that “common sense” is good enough.

In case your own “common sense” hasn’t informed you of this knowledge tidbit yet, the pirates who engineer social media know precisely how to manipulate and massage our prideful ignorance.

Tech companies already shape our brains by studying, with the help of neuroscientists (experts, no less!), how we use the stupid like button, how effectively streaming services prompt us into watching the next bit of mediocre “content” they throw up on our screens, and the best ways to train our minds so that we help spread misinformation (see here and here and here).

And this digital influencing is only getting worse—meaning more and more sophisticated.

Sorry to disrupt our “common sense” stupor, but we’re well into the era where people who know what they’re talking about (yep, sorry, those damn experts) are ringing alarm bells about such online methods of control.

For example, legal ethicist and Duke University law professor, Nita Farahany, proposes that some new human rights need to be on our civil liberties radar screen.  Namely, the right to cognitive liberty, the right to freedom of thought, and the right to mental privacy.  (See her book, The Battle For Your Brain, and her presentation at the 2024 World Economic Forum.)

We’re not talking about old-school, ham-fisted “brainwashing” techniques here.  We’re facing slick, scientifically primed, technologically cutting-edge brainshaping methods being integrated into online marketing operations and propaganda campaigns.  While a variety of techniques are at the fingertips of goons like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Vladimir Putin (to name but a few imperious shitheads), the low-hanging fruit for social media is simply to exploit our many cognitive vulnerabilities.  And such exploitation is exactly what the Trump campaign is doing to peddle its political agenda.

That is to say, Republicans are looking to amplify MAGA Bullshit to the level of New Truth BULLSHIT and then jam their BULLSHIT into the prefrontal cortex of all red-blooded, common-sense Americans.

The Trump campaign employs a toxic mix of several well-known brainfarts.  (For a charming overview of such mental flubs, see The Age of Magical Overthinking.)  A big one is the zero-sum bias—the either/or assumption that someone’s gain necessarily means your loss.  That’s how Trump and the rightwing in general has white voters convinced that any scrap of educational or social or economic opportunity afforded to non-whites spells doom for the Master Race.

Similarly, laying the groundwork for every conspiracy theory is the proportionality bias—overestimating cause-and-effect relationships to the point where you imagine that vast and powerful forces (human or cosmic) are out to get you or to save you.  This is how QAnon stokes folks full of truly remarkable Bullshit about a global cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters ruling the world with the help of dead leftwing dictators and Jewish space lasers.  Or how American evangelicals (anti-intellectual anti-Intellectuals) can elevate Trump, of all people, to the level of the New Messiah.  (How insulted must Jesus be?)

At the heart of the asinine motto “Make America Great Again” is declinism bias—the belief that things are worse now than they were in the past.  This is where the fallacy of The Good Old Days comes from.  In Trump’s version, such days were a kind of Betty Crocker, Pleasantville existence where wives with beehives wore aprons all day long, baking white cakes from scratch, while their husbands put plenty of Brylcreem in their hair before going out to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.  These MAGA Good Old Days, of course, are white-bread (Wonder Bread?) AF.

Leading the charge for this MAGA mind manipulation, though, are two heavy-hitters of non-critical thinking.  One is the infamous confirmation bias—favoring information that validates your preexisting views and opinions.  While we are perfectly capable of carrying out this bias on our own simply by ignoring any information we don’t want to take into account, media outlets and social media make it easier than ever now for us to pursue our prejudices.

If we don’t want to hear any offending points of view, we absolutely don’t have to.  We can spend 24/7/365 inside credible-seeming news silos—on the right, on the left, or in the middle—listening to pundits telling us exactly what we want to hear (see “For-Profit News”).  Equally, we can surf the web in complete confidence that algorithms and filter bubbles will bring to us only opinions and events—again, on the right, on the left, or in the middle—that match our searches and likes.  Thus, if you’re drawn to the ideas of MAGA-world, you’ll soon find yourself living inside a Trumptopian echo chamber that sounds increasingly reasonable—because you want it to.

The second and maybe even more pernicious bit of mind trickery used by Trump is the illusory truth effect—trusting a statement as factual simply because you hear it repeated over and over again.  To put this in plain terms, if you hear an untruth enough times from enough sources, you’re likely to start believing it’s the truth.  (Like anyone who works hard can get ahead or that capitalism and democracy are the same thing.)

Obviously, this phenomenon occurs just from swimming in the cultural waters into which you’re born.  But just as obviously the illusory truth effect constantly and deliberately is weaponized for social, economic, and political gain.  And the process is pretty simple: speak Bullshit.

Bullshit a lot.  Bullshit big.  Bullshit over and over and over and over again.  Spout so much Bullshit that it becomes impossible to keep track of it all.  Get as many other people as you can to start repeating your Bullshit.

Sounds excruciatingly familiar, right?  (Well, maybe not to Uncommitted Voters.)

Bullshitting is where Trump lives.  Bullshitting is what makes Trump tick.  Bullshitting is his business strategy.  Bullshitting is his political strategy.  Bullshitting makes it possible for him to have no discernible policies to run on.  Bullshitting makes it possible for him never to have to prepare for anything—whether a political rally, an interview, or a presidential debate.  Just walk onstage and spout whatever Bullshit pops into your head.  What could be easier?

That is, if you have enough self-serving billionaire donors, enough sucker small donors, and enough power-hungry partisan cronies to pull it off.

Sadly, Trump seems to enjoy these advantages.  Elon Musk, for example, is himself and ardent devotee of Bullshit.  Plenty of fools are eager to donate to Trump’s Bullshit campaign or buy his Bullshit golden sneakers or his Bullshit Trump Bibles (printed in China).  And Bullshit is now the prime directive of the MAGA Republican Party.

JD Vance is a veritable firehose of Bullshit-cum-BULLSHIT-cum-New Common Sense Truth.

In Conclusion

The biggest threat to democracy isn’t Trump himself.

The biggest threat to democracy is well-rehearsed, bias-triggering, ever-recurring, media-spread, tech-savvy, neurological-appealing, well-funded Bullshit casting its brain-spell on unsuspecting, common-sense-trusting, all-American anti-intellectual Intellectuals.

This is how so many Americans are getting beguiled into Fascism.

COMING IN TWO WEEKS: did we keep it?

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