On B.S.

[botias]

This last month pretty much everything I've attempted to do has crashed and burned. But only one two actual casualties, and things are looking up! So, I am going to talk about drinking water and bullshit. That whole eight glasses a day thing? Complete excrement of the bovine.

I just finished a cute, slightly too smug, book that endeavored to define exactly what bullshit is. The conclusion was that B.S. is not a lie exactly, but an idea put forth without the person caring whether it is true or not, or practicing due diligence to find out if it is true. A liar, by contrast, knows what the truth is but chooses to offer something else entirely. So a Feng Shui practitioner is (probably) just bullshitting you, but a person asking you to help him plunder Nigeria is a liar-liar-pants-on-fire.

The eight glasses of water thing is practically an urban legend. In fact, a check at Snopes reveals that it is an urban legend. On the other hand, running around in the cold with wet hair may actually make you more likely to catch cold.

Comments

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, running around in the cold with wet hair may actually make you more likely to catch cold.

God, I hate it when my mother is right. :D


Thanks for this -- I love operational definitions. They help organize my thoughts, which usually are not. Organized, that is.
(See?) Will check out the book.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I agree that there is more B.S. today than in times past, as the author asserts. But I would agree that there's plenty enough to warrant some academic attention to its qualities. :)