Guardian: From Romney's dog to Ryan's run, one thing is clear: this election is bullshit

[Ebadlun]

"But I wonder. Through "excessive indulgence" in bullshitting, Frankfurt writes, "a person's normal habit of attending to the ways things are may become attenuated or lost". Bullshitting breeds bullshitting. And ultimately, that's worse than lying, Frankfurt argues: at least liars remain in some kind of relationship with the truth.

And so the politicians with integrity keep telling the truth, the liars keep lying, the fact-checking operations keep adjudicating between them, and the pundits keep worrying about lies. But none of this troubles the bullshitter, who exists in another dimension entirely, bullshitting happily away. You think he cares about adhering to the truth, or carefully concealing his divergence from it? Bullshit."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/oliver-burkemans-blog/2012/sep/13/romney-ryan-election-bullshit?INTCMP=SRCH

[rfranklin]

1. Rove: We create our own reality...not B.S. so much as an alternate universe...

where one must respect the conventional wisdom or be branded a heretic and a fool. You must recognize that Obama has gutted Medicare and that he is bringing Sharia law to America, etc. At the very least you must say nothing that contradicts those beliefs.

[per_ardua]

2. excellent article

thanks for posting

[barbtries]

3. that was interesting.

lies or bullshit either way should not be considered a valid campaign method.

[bemildred]

4. KnR nt

[rbrnmw]

5. thank you

[Anthony McCarthy]

6. It's Hollywood Real

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, etc. are all phony constructs, they are as real those phony bios that Hollywood agents and studio heads used to make up for their stars, their property. Mitt's dedication to service is as real as Rock Hudson's marriage, a convenient lie in pursuit of an end, deception for a purpose. It's also how Ryan can be effectively ruled by Ayn Rand's pathological series of permissions to unbridled selfishness and pretend to be a Christian, something Rand despised in no uncertain terms.

The Republican Party can't tell the American People what they really intend, to steal everything, to destroy anyone in their way, so they have to come up with a big lie to cover that. It's used the wildly successful model of selling attractive unreality, Hollywood. Reagan is the hero of that effort because he was a creation of both of those. You can't be a sincere Republican after Reagan. You'll either be a complete liar or you'll be a former-Republican.

[madokie]

8. Welcome here

If I could rec' just one reply this one would be it

[hue]

9. Yes phony is a good word--"people of the lie" as M. Scott Peck would say.

[reflection]

7. k/r for a silent media that allows the bullshitting. n/t

[lunatica]

10. The media isn't neutral. It tends to actively stir the pot.

The media creates controversy for ratings. They don't sit by and allow bullshit to happen. They are a home for the fomenting of bullshit.

[valerief]

12. The media does what its big sponsors (you know, the ones funding Rmoney) tell it to do. nt

[Ikonoklast]

11. "A person that lies big, always lies little."

Romney does it as a means to an end, he has no moral compass. Lying has made him a fortune, and lying to lesser mortals is part of his very world-view: everyone not Mitt Romney is stupid and deserves whatever they get if they swallow his lies.


Ryan does it because he is a nobody with a tremendous ambition to be a somebody, and is arrogant enough to think that no one will call him out on his lies.

[lunatica]

14. One's a vulture capitalist in full glory and the other is a con man

Ryan has gotten away with his crap because he wasn't in the spotlight. But as soon as he jocked off the USS Wisconsin he was in the spotlight and so are his lies.

[avebury]

13. K&R nt

[Historic NY]

15. its sure piling up

[Voice for Peace]

16. bull run!

[citizen blues]

17. Outstanding article! It explains a lot.