How the Bullshitter Came Before the Bullshit
Sarah Ridley
WRD 332
Jennifer Rice
October 25, 2018
How the Bullshitter Came Before the Bullshit
Everyone has called bullshit before. Whether it be in the card game of the same name, someone saying something, or a particular situation, we have all deemed something bullshit. However, do we really understand the meaning of the word? From something considered silly or stupid, to a practice you may not agree with, to a political party, the word bullshit gets thrown around quite a bit without any clarification for what it really means. Not everyone’s definition will be the same, but in order to call something bullshit there has to be a meaning attached to the word. Here, I would like to argue my own particular definition of bullshit as well as offer up an example that I hope readers might agree with.
For many, bullshit is a matter of truth and lies, where the lie is always the bullshit. This is not exactly what I am primarily concerned with. For example, someone that accidentally gives the wrong showing time for a movie is not bullshitting. They likely believed the information to be right but either forgot or falsely remembered. But by defining bullshit as lies or untrue statements, that would indeed be bullshitting. One of the first examiners of bullshit, philosopher Harry Frankfurt, seems to argue against a black and white bullshit when in his essay, On Bullshit, he claims, “the distinctive nature of a lie is that of falsity… For the essence of bullshit is not that it is false, but that it is phony,” (12). Phony is defined as not genuine, which is a core component of my definition. Bullshit deals not with the falsity of facts, but with the falsity of a state of mind. Even if someone says something completely true, if they do not truly believe in what they are saying, then that is being fake and that is bullshit.
In relation to the phoniness, bullshit begins inside the mind of the bullshitter. Frankfurt further clarifies in his same essay, “Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns toward trying to provide honest representations of himself,” (16). Rather than a falsity in the world, bullshit begins as a falsity inside the head of the bullshitter. Although some argue that the bull comes first, I believe the bullshitter does. However, much like the chicken and the egg, good points can be made for either. In my personal opinion the chicken, or the bullshitter, must come first before the egg, or the bull. As long as one truly believes in what they preach, it will not be bull. A sincere person may indeed lie, but not intentionally, and intention is the crux of bullshit. Philosopher Gerald Cohen argues otherwise in his essay, Deeper Into Bullshit, when he asserts, “The defect of this bullshit does not derive from its provenance: almost any state of mind can emit nonsense or rubbish, with any old mix of sincerity and its lack,” (2). I would wholeheartedly disagree with the assertation that any state of mind can produce bullshit. For instance, many preachers make wild claims about a messiah walking on water or healing the sick and blind. An atheist may call bullshit on these men, claiming that fact does not support their preaching. However, even if science cannot back up religion, if it is spread with true faith and sincerity, it cannot really be bullshit. As long as there is no ulterior motive or doubt in the mind of the person, what they create is not bull. On the other hand, a preacher may only spread the good word in order to make money in the form of alms to the church. In this case, because he does not believe what he is spreading, as well as having a hidden agenda, his words are bullshit. The good faith preacher and the money hungry preacher may be spreading the same Gospel, but the first is genuine and the second is bullshit. In the same way, flattery is also a form of bullshit. Even if you think that a girl’s hair truly is stunning, if you are only complimenting her to gain a favor, she has every right to call bullshit on you. At the core of this definition, there is a complete lack of sincerity.
Ignorance goes hand in hand with insincerity. It is not possible to be sincere if you do not know what you are talking about. This is where I should say that while not all lying is bullshit, certain types of lies can be. Conjuring up false information from thin air or speaking on a topic that you know you are not well versed on is definitely bullshit. How can you mean what you say when you have no clue what you are talking about? This circles back to intention; if you are talking about something you are ignorant on, you are likely trying to persuade someone to believe you. This is wrong since that person would be agreeing with a statement based on absolutely nothing. It is bullshit to argue on serious issues when you know nothing about them, especially if you are a person in power. With power it is easy to persuade followers, and they may blindly agree with what you are spreading. World leaders often spout bull in order to achieve their goals and mollify the public.
With the explanation now hopefully clear, a surprising yet accurate example comes to mind: North Korea. While this may procure a skeptical glace at first, there are a multitude of reasons the communist dictatorial regime classifies as grade-A bull. Primarily, their reports to world indexes are complete and utter bullshit. Somehow, each year they claim their literacy rate is one hundred percent and their poverty rate is zero percent. Unless the supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, has been living under a rock, he cannot possibly believe those statistics to be true. His country is full of starving and uneducated people outside of the capital of Pyeongyang. However, he does not care since it benefits him to bullshit to the rest of the world. Similarly, North Korea has a so-called happiness index that claims all of its inhabitants are content. For the leader to rule with an unforgiving and iron first and then say that all of his people are happy is boldfaced hypocrisy and bull. His only intention is to hide the egregious human rights violations that he commits every single day. There is certainly no survey sent out to North Koreans in an attempt to assess their happiness. On that note, for the world to pretend that it is okay for North Korea to participate in the Olympics is also bullshit. Whatever the motive may be, it attempts to pardon the country’s leader. With the intention to not provoke the little man, everyone seems to close their eyes to his wrongdoings. Parallel to this, our country’s own leader breathes bullshit when he talks of North Korea and his feelings towards its leader. He has spoken highly of Kim Jong-Un, as well as described their lovely letters exchanged. To me, this is a disgusting example of bullshit. To praise a man that regularly violates the intrinsic rights of North Korean people is appalling. It also may convince some uneducated members of the public to agree with him on the good character of the supreme leader. To ignorantly pretend that there is nothing going on in North Korea under Jong-un is a mammoth example of bull.
As previously discussed, bullshit impacts people negatively on a global scale. Leaders constantly bullshit the rest of the world with ease. They are not the ones that suffer; the people of their country will. Bullshit out of the mouth of those in power is extremely dangerous and may succeed in fooling millions. Yet, this may allow one to think that it does not play a part in our everyday lives. This is surely not the case, as an everyday classroom example would be bullshitting a paper. Students often write papers that may or may not contain correct information and sources, but do not care and only intend to get away with an A. Every student has likely bullshitted at one time or another, but the key consequence to remember is not the F they may receive, it is absence of knowledge gained. Going to school means wanting to learn and educate oneself, and bullshitting creates a massive detriment to learning. Moreover, on a personal scale bullshit is malignant to the identity; it is a mask put on over hidden intentions that conceals a person’s true opinions and colors. Bullshit is an attack on sincerity, and in a culture where it is considered cool to be “bad” and cynical and emotionally closed off, it is a huge problem. I hope that if readers may take one thing away from my rambling opinion, it is to be sincere. There is no need to pretend to know everything, and you will likely get caught anyway. It is unnecessary to hide intentions and go about asking for something in a roundabout way. Be sincere, be as honest as possible, and try your hardest not to bullshit.
Works Cited
Cohen, G. A. “Deeper into Bullshit.” HCCS Learning Web, 2016,
learning.hccs.edu/faculty/robert.tierney/phil1301–6/bullshit/g.a.-cohen-deeper-into-
bullshit/view.
Frankfurt, Harry “On Bullshit.” Princeton University, 2005,
file:///C:/Users/Sarah%20Ridley/Downloads/on-bullshit%20(2).pdf
