Fareed Zakaria: The unbearable stench of Trump’s B.S.

[babylonsister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-unbearable-stench-of-trumps-bs/2016/08/04/aa5d2798-5a6e-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html

Opinions
The unbearable stench of Trump’s B.S.
By Fareed Zakaria Opinion writer August 4 at 5:33 PM

snip//

Did Trump really believe that you could say something like that on live TV and no one would check? Did he think that no one would notice that the “60 Minutes” show consisted of two separate prerecorded interviews, with Putin in Moscow and Trump in New York? (By that logic, I have gotten to know Franklin Roosevelt very well because I have run some clips of him on my television show.)

In fact, Trump was bullshitting. He sees himself as important, a global celebrity, the kind of man who should or could have met Putin. Why does it matter that they did not actually meet?

Or look at the issue that fueled his political rise, birtherism. Trump said in 2011 that he had sent investigators to Hawaii and that “they cannot believe what they’re finding.” For weeks, he continued to imply that there were huge findings to be released. He hinted to George Stephanopoulos, “We’re going to see what happens.” That was five years ago, in April 2011. Nothing happened.

In fact, it appears highly unlikely that Trump ever sent any investigators to Hawaii. In 2011, Salon asked Trump attorney Michael Cohen for details about the investigators. Cohen said that it was all very secret, naturally. Trump has said the same about his plan to defeat the Islamic State, which he can’t reveal. He has boasted that he has a strategy to win solidly Democratic states this fall, but he won’t reveal which ones. (Even by Trump’s standards, this one is a head-scratcher. Won’t we notice when he campaigns in these places? Or will it be so secret that even the voters won’t know?) Of course, these are not secret strategies. It’s just B.S.

Harry Frankfurt concludes that liars and truth-tellers are both acutely aware of facts and truths. They are just choosing to play on opposite sides of the same game to serve their own ends. The B.S. artist, however, has lost all connection with reality. He pays no attention to the truth. “By virtue of this,” Frankfurt writes, “bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.”

We see the consequences. As the crazy talk continues, standard rules of fact, truth and reality have disappeared in this campaign. Donald Trump has piled such vast quantities of his trademark product into the political arena that the stench is now overwhelming and unbearable.

[liberal N proud]

1. And Hillary Clinton is the dishonest one?

Only in the up is down world of the conservatives.

[greyl]

2. "On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt is the great little book Fareed is referencing:

On Bullshit - Harry Frankfurt at Amazon

Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

[malaise]

5. Funny

I pulled out my copy a few days ago

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. I keep meaning to buy this book!

My Must Read list is too long!

[tblue37]

10. Link to free PDF copy of the book:

http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/bullshit/pdf/on-bullshit.pdf

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. :O

Wow!!!!! I didn't know about that. THANKS tblue!!

[Native]

3. So now we have the perfect and scientifically exact term for this thing known as Donald J. Trump

Thank you babylonsister. I'm bookmarking this and moving it to the top of the pile!

[longship]

4. Fareed's final paragraph again.

We see the consequences. As the crazy talk continues, standard rules of fact, truth and reality have disappeared in this campaign. Donald Trump has piled such vast quantities of his trademark product into the political arena that the stench is now overwhelming and unbearable.

It deserves repeating. "His trademark product". Indeed!!!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

13. While he certainly seems to have perfected it, this is nothing new at all for the RW.

I think we really need recognize as an important turning point the "Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement" debacle and the failure of the RW, or the MSM really, to give a much of shit about it.

[malaise]

6. Well no one checked whether he sent investigators to Hawaii

and it was an out of work journalist who checked the plagiarism of Michelle Obama's speech

[JohnnyLib2]

7. I've bookmarked this one, too. Thanks!

[rladdi]

9. What is really interesting, the US Supreme Court and state courts have ruled that

politicians can lie. It is up to the listeners to seek the real truth. My issue is that many of the voters do not use social media, have computers to seek out the real truth. Thus they believe everything they hear.

[tblue37]

11. It is much worse than that. They DO have computers and social media, but

they are inundated with BS because they only read and listen to stuff that reinforces their biases. It is like the studies that show that FOX viewers know less than people who view and read no news at all.