Scientific Biological Plausibility of Overwhelming* Bullshit (Pt1) ie, How We Should Use Established Methodology to Not Be So Stupid and to Enforce Accountability to Political Criminals
*"overwhelming" is a descriptor/adjective for the bullshit that is crushing us, but "overwhelming" is also a verb, an action that we can take as a countermeasure
The amount of bullshit we are exposed to these days is overwhelming. We are being hit with bullshit from all angles, from all sources, and on all topics. Most of us, most of the time, can detect most of the bullshit that is being dumped on us, but…CONVERSELY…most people are willing to accept bullshit that might even harm them if that bullshit conforms to, supports, and coddles their prejudices or other bullshit(s) that they already accepted via ignorance, youth, or self-serving convenience.
In order to deal effectively with bullshit, we need a theoretical approach to bullshit, as stated by Princeton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Harry Frankfurt PhD:
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. … But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory. I propose to begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis.
Did you notice how the bullshit that I exposed in some of my recent videos was almost overwhelming?
Our medical-scientific organizations have become fountains of bullshit.
Our politicians lie to us every day, and we let them get away with it because we have no system of counter-action or self-defense.
Our government funds bullshit and then calls it journalism and public science.
The fact that our education system does not teach us how to detect and counteract bullshit sets us up to be passive bullshit receptacles for our entire lives.
Yes: 1) we are being overwhelmed by bullshit, and 2) we are mostly ignorant about how to recognize it, 3) counteract it, and 4) hold the bullshitters accountable.
But the real question is: Can we counter-overwhelm the bullshit that is overwhelming us? Can we develop a counterstrategy?
I think that we can, and I think that we can use or modify the anti-bullshit criteria that are already established in science, eg, the criteria for biological plausibility.
I’ll develop this idea more completely in upcoming articles
