The technical term for the much of the debate going on in the public forum right now is bullshit. That’s not an expletive, that’s the term Princeton philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt defined in his scholarly book On Bullshit. Professor Frankfurt can explain much of the political vitriol out there right now. The accusations aren’t lies. They’re bullshit.
The difference between a liar and a bullshitter, according to Frankfurt, “is not that she fails to get things right, but that she is not even trying.” Both truth and lying require discipline because a good liar has to pay careful attention to where the boundaries of truth are in order to hide the truth. For people only interested in throwing political hand grenades, however, Frankfurt’s bullshit provides freedom from annoyances like putting quotes in context, checking facts, and admitting that people who disagree with you are not under the control of Satan.
Nobody with any real sense really believes all the bullshit of either side. But it feels so good to say it that it takes on a life of its own and pretty soon it becomes “common knowledge” and there you are with an immutable truth that “everybody knows” (at least those who live in your narcissocracy) but just happens to be false.
