4 ms·

Yes, of course there's bullshit everywhere. But what can you do with that knowledge exactly? Knowing that something is fallacious and full of BS doesn't give y

Yes, of course there's bullshit everywhere. But what can you do with that knowledge exactly? Knowing that something is fallacious and full of BS doesn't give you some advantage. It makes it worse. Knowing that the system is full of lies and corrupt doesn't provide a means to get some good from that knowledge or take advantage of knowing the "truth". It's just depressing to know that the takers will always be taking, the fakers will always be faking, and those who know how to work the lies keep winning while those who know the truth of the BS just self-congratulate their own knowledge. Does the BS always win? Say one knows for a "fact" who killed JFK or the origins of the pandemic, or one knows the actual mechanism by which startups are funded or big deals won (it's never the way it's portrayed to be). What does knowing the truth of any of those facts do other than provide one with some self-satisfaction of knowing? Is it better to live in self-deception and believe the simple lie versus know the hard truth? Does knowing the "actual truth" even provide that self-satisfaction given that the lies and untruths win out so much of the time? Confronting the lies never seems to provide the expected win that those who seem to possess the truth would expect.

paulpauper 5y ago
tune out. it's not like being up to date about everything going on the world is necessary. follow only the news you care about, read only the people whose work you enjoy
- rexreed 5y ago
  That's certainly the easy way. But that only applies to news and internet chatter and social media blather -- stuff that's fairly easy to tune out. I've already tuned those out. But the lies and BS are much more than just what the nattering neighbobs say on the Internets and the glowing chatter box. The lies exist everywhere if you look deeply to find the truth when what you expect doesn't match reality. It's much more difficult to tune that out.
A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
I could invoke Always Sunny in Philadelphia Frank's duper/dupee dichotomy or Carlin's rant ('it's all bullshit and its bad for ya'), but I won't. It is lazy. Knowing something is bullshit helps. Knowing the system and understanding what the levers do is an advantage. This is also the reason there is so much bullshit. Advantage goes to those with accurate world model and ability to use it to their advantage. All that said, I have no real answers to the posited questions as those probably have to be answered individually.
mistermann 5y ago
You could start by learning some of what is possible from the masters: politicians, the media, and their writers.

paulpauper 5y ago

tune out. it's not like being up to date about everything going on the world is necessary. follow only the news you care about, read only the people whose work you enjoy

rexreed 5y ago
That's certainly the easy way. But that only applies to news and internet chatter and social media blather -- stuff that's fairly easy to tune out. I've already tuned those out. But the lies and BS are much more than just what the nattering neighbobs say on the Internets and the glowing chatter box. The lies exist everywhere if you look deeply to find the truth when what you expect doesn't match reality. It's much more difficult to tune that out.

A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago

I could invoke Always Sunny in Philadelphia Frank's duper/dupee dichotomy or Carlin's rant ('it's all bullshit and its bad for ya'), but I won't. It is lazy. Knowing something is bullshit helps. Knowing the system and understanding what the levers do is an advantage. This is also the reason there is so much bullshit. Advantage goes to those with accurate world model and ability to use it to their advantage. All that said, I have no real answers to the posited questions as those probably have to be answered individually.

mistermann 5y ago

You could start by learning some of what is possible from the masters: politicians, the media, and their writers.