On Bullshit By Humbug Summary

In William Lutz’s essay entitled “The World of Doublespeak,” from Christopher Ricks’s and Lenonard Micheal’s anthology State of the Language, Lutz examines the art of doublespeak. This essay is meant to enlighten people on examples and different uses of doublespeak and how organizations and others use it to mislead. Lutz begins by defining doublespeak as “language which pretends to communicate but doesn’t, language which makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant attractive, or at least tolerable” (278). Specifically, people who use doublespeak pretend to be conveying a certain message while in the real sense they are doing the opposite of that. The author gives specific examples of doublespeak that affect the

In Cross’s opinion, she believes people are bamboozled by propaganda because they fail to recognize when they experience it (248). The thirteen propaganda methods Cross describes in this essay include the following: Name-Calling, Glittering Generalities, Plain-Folks Appeal, Arguementum Ad Populum (Stroking),

Shortly after grabbing the reader’s interest through concise summary of her story, Robbins introduces her quirk theory and establishes her credibility through her research. She appeals to her reader through aphorism as she defines the term

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.”(Frankfurt). This statement truly defines the current situation of our life. I have developed a decent interest in this topic because we are surrounded by it and the majority of people don’t recognize it. There have been a lot of difficulties in understanding this topic as there are no particular theory has been given to this topic. According to Frankfurt bullshit is unavoidable at conditions in which we expect somebody to talk without recognizing what he is discussing. Therefore, the production of bullshit is based on the opportunities that an individual have to express more on a particular topic than his knowledge on the particular topic. We are going to talk about the similarities and differences between lying and bullshit. We will also discuss that which one is more harmful to the society and why, we are also going to discuss about some of the questions that are related to bullshitting in our life and discuss why we are not doing anything about it or it is just a human tendency.

Frankfurt talks about the definition of bullshit in the Oxford English Dictionary, which has multiple definitions that he goes on to elaborate on. He refers to Max Black’s essay, “The Prevalence of Humbug,” saying that the word humbug is almost the same as bullshit. The definition of humbug goes on

The truth, to a bullshitter, is irrelevant but that’s not to say when one bullshits they aren’t telling the truth. The possibility for truth does exist, it’s simply implication of there being no veneration or effort for the truth, qualifying something stated as bullshit. As Frankfurt argues that one who bullshits merely doesn’t care whether or not something is true, he also agrees with Max Black (in relation to his depiction of humbug) in that part of their concern rests on how they are perceived during and after their delivery of said bullshit. Frankfurt expands on Blacks stance by saying those who use bullshit also have a way of committing to their choice of words, as it’s not just how they are perceived as a person but also about crafting their words in such a way that the information they are spreading appears plausible. In appearing believable to others, the speaker/bullshitter ultimately manages to pull off a pre-meditated goal of “getting away with something”. Pre-meditated, artfully crafted diarrhea of the mouth is a key ingredient in bullshit being established successfully. I would argue bullshit is tool used like a language chameleon and can be altered and camouflaged by a bullshitter to manipulate content and context

Consistently, we can see clear cases of both bologna and lying and the differing outcomes of both these activities. Be that as it may, what is horse crap, precisely? What are the qualities of bologna? What is reality? Will horse crap be destructive? The motivation behind this paper is to answer these inquiries while in the meantime demonstrating that horse crap can most likely once in a while be hurtful. By looking at: the importance of "horse crap" as characterized by Harry Frankfurt, why Frankfurt believes that bologna is hurtful, and an obviously safeguarded unique contention, the likelihood of mischief from bullshitting will be demonstrated.

Pennycook et al. (2015) state “bullshit is something that implies, but does not contain adequate meaning or truth” (p.549). They suggest that there is a spectrum of bullshit, and that pseudo-profound bullshit is an “extreme point” (p.550) on this spectrum; it is described as vague and ambiguous.

The world we live in is full of lies, hidden by euphemism. According to Merriam Webster, “euphemism is defined as a mild or pleasant word or phrase that is used instead of one that is unpleasant or offensive.” Euphemism is one way in which people are using to mask their own thoughts, beliefs, and/or agenda, in order to persuade someone in their favor. In addition to this, it makes it hard to make out the truth because people are able to twist their words to justify their own argument. Government officials, for example, are very fond of these in order to access their own political agenda.

Job interviews are where potential employees ‘sell themselves’ to get the job. This happens regardless of profession and skill, especially when there is a limited number of spots available. Accordingly, everyone applying for a job attempt to make themselves better than they actually are without lying directly, which is where Harry Frankfurt, author of the article “On Bullshit”, says it happens without a second thought. When looking up the definition for bullshit, Frankfort did not look up words meaning bullshit in other languages as he did not know them, but he was fully aware that it did exist in other cultures and older words are used in other languages. As Frankfurt was looking, he found other words such as humbug when he was looking at

Frankfurt begins his search for the meaning of bullshit by comparing it to the word “humbug,” and referencing the work The Prevalence of Humbug by Max Black. Black gives the definition of humbug: “deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.” (118). By examining the definition of a related term, Frankfurt begins his argument

to foolery by their silly acts as well. There are two types of fool in

Bullshit is when someone has no clue what they are talking about, yet insists on trying to get others to believe him/her.

Bullshit, then, seems to become more of a problem when it could have more dire consequences. Bullshit from a neighbor gets a nod of the head and a smile, bullshit from the Pope causes holy wars.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The bullshit is coming. Most of the time, it forms a person’s personality. People do it, say it and think about it. It is obstructive and yet people wore it like a favorite shirt. Acid washed? Definitely! It hides one’s true color by painting another on top of it. It is the reasons, the excuses and all the lies being told every day, yet people get away with their poor behavior because they are tricked and manipulated by their own mind. Bernard Roth, famous author of the book “The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing and Take Command of Your Life” pointed out people’s behavior when it comes to making up excuses and throwing unacceptable reasons in order to cover their shortcomings and justify their actions. “Reasons are Bullshit”, Roth said in the second chapter of his book, which after reading it, kind of made a lot of sense. Battling reason with another reason is no joke but Roth appalled his readers when he said reasons are bullshit by illustrating his arguments using Ethos, Pathos and Logos feebly.