Now more than ever, it's clear that we are full participants in an unrivaled Age of Bullshit. Ever since Harry Frankfurt at Princeton published "On Bullshit" in 2005, the academic pursuit of examination has turd blossomed into a swirling miasma of day-to-day existence, where the fetid waves of bullshit threaten to gaslight into madness even the staunchest supporters of an objective reality governed by valid and reliable truths. And sadly, a large chunk of our American body politic lacks the basic skills to discern what is and is not, failed by products and policies beyond the span of control.
Thankfully, that's where Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West at the University of Washington come in. They've proposed a one-credit course titled Calling Bullshit, where some basic readings over a twelve-week period offer a cogent framework of introduction, identification, and inculcation. (The syllabus, complete with links to the readings, can be found here.) Going in, it would help to have an elementary knowledge in several domains of the humanities and social sciences, but even without that skeleton, the figures drawn by Bergstrom and West couldn't be more clear and of the moment.
Of course, you might wonder if you have the time and/or passion to explore the concept of bullshit in more detail. After all, the sane mind conjectures, isn't this current moment in history simply the spike of a fever that's about to break, as the patient lies on the cusp of swinging back to a familiar normalcy, the memories of temporary insanity rendered distant and opaque? Sadly, I fear not. My friend Brian, who works in Talent Analytics for Apple -- who will help me pick up all these names? -- used the phrase "paradigm shift" to describe what we're currently seeing and living, and there's typically not a full regression to a previous "save point" after paradigm shifts, especially one such as this. Long story short, bullshit on a monumental and egregious scale is the new normal, and it's a normal we have to learn to navigate as soon as possible.
I shit you not.
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