How do you detect bullshit?

[raccoon]

Inquiring minds want to know...

[pintobean]

1. .

[raccoon]

2. Cute. Where can I get one? nt

[pintobean]

4. Black market

They were outlawed by Bush.

[amyrose2712]

3. A republican's mouth is moving. Sound is coming out. nt

[RandomThoughts]

5. Well I really try not to accept any assumptions.

So most of the time I talk about ideas that try and contain a reason or argument that is not relevant to the story.

Like in the Massa thing, I posted in a comment about that, but not about anything to do with him, just some concept about justice.

Or on a story about posting of images, I did not post about the story, just the concept that the idea in the story comes from.

Or on a story about houses not being bailed out, I posted on the concept of letting for profit run a system.


I could go on and on, but basically stories posted are just ways to create some thought, since sitting at a keyboard does not really give a form of validation. So I just treat most stories as, well that would be interesting, wonder if it is true.


When someone is talking in person, you can throw out words then gauge reactions, but you have to test a bit, so you can create a distorted rep for yourself. Or seeing someone talk you can get a read on there feelings, or if you empathise you can get a feel for their thoughts on issues.

So I think I don't detect BS, I try and find some little sliver of truth in things. Sometimes a context can validate something, or a reaction.

[old mark]

6. I am so full of it myself that detecting it in others just comes naturally. nt

[tango-tee]

8. Mark, you scoundrel!

:spank:

[HopeHoops]

7. The little blue "FOX NEWS" cube spinning in the bottom corner of the screen.

[lazarus]

9. I use Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html
on edit, some of the stuff in the Kit:

# Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
# Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
# Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
# Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
# Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
# Quantify, wherever possible.
# If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
# "Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
# Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. It hands me a paycheck every other Friday. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. You can't bullshit a bullshitter and they always go in pairs.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

12. Hemingway.....

"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it."

How did he do it? You'll have to as Papa.

[Taverner]

13. People who are in the process of making up lies, look to the sky

[kimi]

14. I heard that they look to the left

I think I saw that on an ancient CSI episode.

Or right. If they're left-handed. :shrug:

[Taverner]

15. Probably - the mind is trying to fix on nothing, as not to distract the storytelling process

They will look to a direction, but they will not 'see' anything

Of course my departed Grandma said it best:

Tell the truth - its easier to remember

[hunter]

16. Ninety percent of everything is bullshit.

The trick is sifting out the ten percent that's not.

(variation of Sturgeon's Law)