calling bullshit - The Art of the Prank

The bullshit is getting so deep, soon we’ll need to walk around on stilts.

Jon Stewart: President Donald Trump Is Making Bulls**t The Official U.S. Language, by Ed Mazza, Huffington Post, February 2, 2017

He also found what may be the one saving grace of the Trump presidency.

Watch the video…

Jon Stewart is back, and he wasted no time going after President Donald Trump.

Appearing on the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night, the former “Daily Show” host made some unusual wardrobe choices in honor of the new president.

“The president sets men”s fashion,” Stewart said. “I saw the inauguration, super-long tie, dead animal on head.”

So wearing a dead animal on his head “” and a super-long tie “” Stewart proceeded to read what he claimed were some upcoming executive orders. One of them was to make bullshit the official language of the United States.

“I, Donald J. Trump, have instructed my staff to speak only in bullshit,” Stewart read. “And by the way, none of that “˜Sure, I”ll speak bullshit at work but at home I”m going to use facts and real information.” No! Bullshit all the time. Immersion: It”s the only way to be fluent.”

“Calling Bullshit” is a college course designed to identify & combat bullshit. We need more of these!

From Current Affairs, Science, January 27th, 2017: Two professors at the University of Washington, Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, have created a website meant to accompany a potential college seminar entitled “Calling Bullshit.” Here”s how Bergstrom and West explain the premise of their course. It”s worth quoting them at length.

The world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. Advertisers wink conspiratorially and invite us to join them in seeing through all the bullshit “” and take advantage of our lowered guard to bombard us with bullshit of the second order. The majority of administrative activity, whether in private business or the public sphere, seems to be little more than a sophisticated exercise in the combinatorial reassembly of bullshit.

We”re sick of it. It”s time to do something, and as educators, one constructive thing we know how to do is to teach people. So, the aim of this course is to help students navigate the bullshit-rich modern environment by identifying bullshit, seeing through it, and combating it with effective analysis and argument. More…

Visit the Calling Bullshit website.

Get your Bullshit Detector Watch website here.