Get ready ... for a lot of bullshit!

Ah, yes, after this topic, which is about the certainty that we all face, perhaps bullshit is one of my favorite topics.  After all, it takes a bullshitter to love bullshit ;)

People talk about the past golden age, like the golden age of cinema, or the golden age of cricket (no, not the bugs!).  We now live in a golden age, and of an interesting kind:

We are currently in a golden age of bullshit. The internet is awash with unchecked claims.

Well, I read that on the internet.  So, is that bullshit or the truth?  Isn't everything in the internet true anyway ;)

So, of course, curious people want to know who are the people who are most likely to believe the bullshit.  What is an individual’s propensity to believe in bullshit?  Develop "a Bullshit Receptivity scale (BSR)" then.  What does the research show?

Summarizing the results, Pennycook, et al., write that “[people] more receptive to bullshit are less reflective, lower in cognitive ability (i.e., verbal and fluid intelligence, numeracy), are more prone to … conspiratorial ideation, are more likely to hold religious and paranormal beliefs, and are more likely to endorse complementary and alternative medicine.”

If you believed that, you probably rank way high in the scale ;)

Seriously, that makes sense, right?  So, what can be done to make sure people will be lower in the SBR scale?

Basically, the goal here should be to get people to slow down and more carefully examine the information being presented to them. To scan it, in other words, for bullshit.

To be engaged and to examine the information is nothing but the rational, critical approach that science employs.  The scientific method.  

if you love science, you had better question it, and question it well, so it can live up to its potential.

The unfortunate aspect is that the very scientific method of questioning anything leads the people with high BSR to believe that scientific research is all bogus.  Science, on the other hand, sniffs out bullshit.  But, sometimes the scientific method cannot be enough to tackle bullshit.  Why?

“The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.”

You want a real example?  Think about anything that Donald Trump says at any of his rallies.  They are all bullshit.  Now, think about all the work that has to go into refuting the errors.  A huge magnitude of energy will be needed to refute his bullshit.  You will be barely into the process when a new day dawns and Trump would have generated more bullshit.

If it is the golden age of bullshit, then Trump is certainly the man of the hour.

The world is reborn in humble facts

A few weeks ago, in an email exchange on science and the Upanishads--yes, this blogger will gladly dish out opinions, upon request, on all things considered!--I added the following editorial comment:

BTW, the article mentions Deepak Chopra ... I am one of those who make fun of Chopra because he is yet another in a long line of people who have sold mumbo-jumbo to gullible Westerners and made a whole lot of money. 

The likes of Chopra prove over and over again PT Barnum's old line that there's a sucker born every minute!

Chopra is fun to beat up on because he is seemingly everywhere--on television, in print, and even on Twitter.   His outpouring of wisdom has made it easy for websites to automatically generate Chopraisms; the title of this post was generated by this site, where you, too, can have hours of fun.

Oddly enough, in this more literate world, people seem to be as gullible as ever before.  It is almost as if literacy and education has got nothing to do with thinking.  But then, on many matters people prefer Chopraisms and more because they seem comforting and reassuring.  Like how perhaps alcohol and drugs could make it seem like the problems go away.

We are forever ready to accept as truth if we want to believe in it.  A few days ago, a "cousin-in-law" had posted on Facebook something about Donald Trump, just because the content put Trump in such a bad light.  It was yet another case of if something is too good to be true, well, maybe it ain't true after all.  Despite my intense hatred for the fascist Trump, I commented that it was all an urban legend and referred him to a site that had the facts on that.

People believe in bullshit all the time, it seems.  The same people who are quick to point out the bullshit in another's belief willingly submit to bullshit that is consistent with their preferred view of the world.

So, how might you – the reader – vaccinate yourself against it?

You better figure out how to vaccinate yourself against bullshit because it seems like bullshit has been increasing at exponential rates and the growth rate does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.  Because:

We live in the age of information, which means that we also live in the age of misinformation.

So, what can you do?  Be on the alert, all the time.

Bullshit is much harder to detect when we want to agree with it.

Or, at least make sure you read this blog every single day--after all, it is a bullshit-free paradise ;)

Marketing graduate school

As if I needed additional materials as evidence of how we aggressively market graduate education, despite the whole thing being a "graduate scheme," well, here is an example--excerpted from a campus email:

Graduate School Week is returning this October! It is a great opportunity to help introduce students to graduate school information. ...

Class Presentations: An opportunity for faculty to bring a grad school presentation right into your courses! We will work with you to set up a class presentation for your classes. This presentation can be very flexible - ... The idea is to help integrate this information into a class period where students can get the most essential parts of graduate school information for their needs, and for you to be able to help get this information to them by inviting us into the classroom....

WOU Graduate Programs Fair: ...booths from all of WOU's graduate programs will be set up with representatives on hand to give out information, answer questions, and help orient students to the types of graduate programs WOU offers. A great way for undergraduates to learn more about degrees right here at WOU. (And a wonderful way for students to get extra credit for attending!)

BTW, did you catch that "extra credit" deal for attending the fair? :(

Harry Frankfurt noted that marketing, by its very nature, requires a whole lot of bullshitting!

Debt Ceiling: Money talks and bullshit walks!

Forget the pundits and politicians--the best analysis is in the videos here :)

The Daily Show - Armadebtdon 2011 - Republicans Think Obama Is Obsessed
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Senior Economic Analyst explains the importance of this: we will soon hit the bullshit ceiling!

The Daily Show - Armadebtdon 2011 - National Bulls**t Ceiling
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Well, here is the walking bullshit meter, Professor Harry Frankfurt, who postulated that bullshit will only keep increasing :(

Writing, in 800 words or less

Paul Krugman writes:

If I had my way, we’d require students to write 800-word essays, just for writing and reasoning practice.

I have been doing this for years now.  It forces students to develop well-focused arguments.  There is also one other huge benefit: it minimizes the possibility of Bullshit.  (Come to think of it, we need to impose such word restrictions whenever faculty speak or write anywhere, anytime!  editor: does that include you? Awshutup!)

Anyway, back to Krugman:

It’s really, really hard to say something meaningful in a limited space. And yet, that constraint has its virtues: it forces you to be concise, to figure out what you really need to say and skip the rest, to find turns of phrase that are shorter and usually plainer. And my experience is that the process of doing all that almost always makes the thing read better.

Yep.  While my columns do not have the importance or reach that Krugman's have, I am always aiming for a length of between 675 and 725 words.  Unless the newspaper restricts me to 500 words or less.

More waking up to the reality that a college degree might be worthless

I wish more would engage in sincere discussions on this critical issue that I have blogged about, well, forever it feels like! .... this time, it is the Los Angeles Times ...

After spending tens of thousands of dollars on higher education, often taking on huge debts along the way, many face a job market that doesn't seem to need them. Not only is the American economy producing few new jobs of any kind, but the ones that are being added are overwhelmingly on the lower end of the skill and pay scale.

In fact, government surveys indicate that the vast majority of job gains this year have gone to workers with only a high school education or less, casting some doubt on one of the nation's most deeply held convictions: that a college education is the ticket to the American Dream.

Therein lies the problem--universities continue to sell college as the route for economic gains.  That is what I refer to as a ponzi scheme.  Higher education is about way, way more than learning a few tricks, or how to use a tool ... If higher education were only as utilitarian and materialistic as that, well, I won't be in it :)
But, what colleges seem to do is promise students--particularly from low and low-middle income families--that a pot of gold awaits them upon graduation ... and then four years later students find out that is not the case :(

Professor Harry Frankfurt noted that whenever we begin to market, to sell--whether it is a candidate, or a consumer good--we begin to bullshit, and truth goes out the window ...

What voters really care about: bullshit

Here is how the Onion News Network reported how voters elect candidates who not only talk the most bullshit, but also live it

And here is Professor Harry Frankfurt talking about Bullshit