Spread Of Bullshit

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In this day and age, our culture is surrounded by lies and dishonesty. Throughout the past several decades, the American society has had a harder time distinguishing truths from lies. Our information feeds are infected by the inaccuracy of the information that is vital in developing solutions. However, the constant spread of lies became the foundation of a much more serious and unpredictable nature of exaggeration: bullshit. Harry Frankfurt, in his article On Bullshit, emphasized the notion of bullshit, conveyed its true meaning, and explained it relevance in our culture. Another similar perspective and its role in society comes from TV talk show host John Oliver in “Last Week Tonight.” Oliver stressed that powerful, political leaders, such …show more content…

The main argument and position that Frankfurt has taken is that bullshit has become so normalized in society, particularly in the American society. All individuals, to some degree, have grown tolerant of retaining bullshit. One of the reasons why bullshit is so normalized is because we have a completely different attitude towards it than we do to lying. Frankfurt noted, “In fact, people tend to be more tolerant of bullshit than of lies, perhaps because we are less inclined to take the former as a personal affront” (Frankfurt 12). In agreement, I believe that there is a different, lighter attitude towards bullshit, which should not be the case. Due to the notion that there is a gentler attitude towards bullshit, people tend to bullshit rather than lie. As it becomes consistently more common for people to bullshit, I believe it will become more complicated to revert back to a culture of reliability and trust, values that Frankfurt encourages people to take on. After all, once bullshit is persistent within our information feeds, we will become more receptive to misinformation and information that is filled with …show more content…

More specifically, in the book Mass Communication, Ralph E. Hanson examined the bias within the journalist, media, and political structures within our world today. Often, news reporters have shaped stories in a way that seems to be more attractive and desirable for their targeted audience. This, therefore, can increase the probability of news reporters releasing misinformation due to the alterations of their stories to appeal to audiences. “Fox News commentator Bill O’ Reilly says that part of his network’s popularity comes from its willingness to think about what audience members want” (Hanson 142). According to my interpretation to this statement, biases can potentially be embedded into stories that journalists, or news anchors, share. These stories can, therefore, potentially contain misinformation or disinformation that will attract an audience that are like-minded in respect to the source that is giving out the news. Of course, those who share these biased stories do so unintentionally based on their personal values and viewpoints. This, therefore, connects with Frankfurt’s argument, since bullshitting is the unintentional spread of misinformation. Because people believe news sources to be a credible source of information, we are often more inclined to retain deceptive information, and the biases that come along with

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