On 03/02/2016 09:12 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
> http://quillette.com/2016/02/15/the-unbearable-asymmetry-of-bullshit/

On Bullshit: Donald Trump, Harry Frankfurt, and Indifference to Truth
CFI Institute Online Course
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 • 8:00-9:30 PM
https://secure.centerforinquiry.net/education/events/on-bullshit-donald-trump-harry-frankfurt-and-indifference-to-truth

"Donald Trump’s primary campaign is a landmark in the history of bullshit. As 
of this writing, 78 percent of Trump’s campaign trail claims evaluated by the 
nonpartisan website PolitiFact have been rated Mostly False, False, or Pants on 
Fire. Trump’s deceptions range from the inflammatory, to the self-serving, to 
the conspiratorial: That he saw New Jersey Muslims celebrating the fall of the 
World Trade Center on 9/11. That he never went bankrupt. That vaccines cause 
autism.

In his classic paper, “On Bullshit,” philosopher Harry Frankfurt argues that 
the hallmark of bullshit is indifference to truth. A liar knows the truth and 
takes pains to misrepresent it convincingly. A bullshitter casually mixes fact 
and fiction because, for him, the truth is beside the point. Trump is the 
epitome of a Frankfurtian bullshitter in that his rhetoric is crafted purely to 
impress his audience in the moment. His proposal to build a wall between the 
United States and Mexico is a case in point. We will discuss how Trump’s 
success reflects our post-factual politics and what we can do to resist 
disinformation.

Lindsay Beyerstein is an investigative journalist in Brooklyn, New York. She 
co-hosts CFI’s flagship radio show and podcast, Point of Inquiry. Her reporting 
has appeared in The New Republic, Al Jazeera America, The Columbia Journalism 
Review, Salon, Slate, Newsweek, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, and other 
publications. She was the recipient of a 2015 Beacon of Reason Award from 
Oregonians for Science and Reason. She holds a Master’s degree in philosophy 
from Tufts University."

-- 
⛧ glen

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