Why politics is bullshit

In my spare time I enjoy reading political biographies, baking and cooking, cycling, travelling when I can and exploring new places in London. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Search for:. Bullshit and Post-truth Politics 0 comments 1 shares Estimated reading time: 5 minutes.

About the author reesej1. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Around the world, a new breed of politicians is flourishing, for whom lying and bullshitting is part of their everyday routine. This is earning them both popular appeal and widespread revulsion.

But what is bullshit and why is it so effective in our time? Bullshitting is different from lying. The American philosopher Harry Frankfurt, who attempted to build a theory of bullshit, explains this clearly. He argues that whereas the liar cares about the truth — their aim is to prevent others from learning it — the bullshitter does not care about the difference between the truth and falsity of their assertions.

They just pick ideas out, or make them up, to suit their purpose. In the run up to his presidential campaign, Donald Trump, for instance, alleged that Barack Obama was born outside the US. This forced Obama to release his birth certificate.

Trump then responded by labelling this birth certificate a forgery. Many would dismiss this as a childish political blunder or an act of political duplicity. This is now a regular feature of what is referred to as post-truth politics: leaders seeking to shape public opinion by spreading bullshit, a medley of lies, half-truths, innuendos and empty verbiage.

A more subtle type of bullshit is practised when leaders facilitate or give credibility to rumours or patent lies. This is often used to de-legitimise political opposition. This is a technique that British prime minister Boris Johnson has used. Created: October 27, Last edited: October 28, Download preprint Downloads: Abstract Frankfurt defined persuasive communication that has no regard for truth, knowledge, or evidence as bullshit.

See less. Preprint DOI License CC-By Attribution 4. Tags bullshit ideology political bullshit pseudo-profound bullshit voting. Citations APA. Enter citation style e. This website relies on cookies to help provide a better user experience.