Friday, December 04, 2020

How to Tell that Someone is Full of Crap: A Short Guide

A non-exhaustive list of signs to watch for:

  • When they say one thing in public, and another in court
  • When they say that they are not obligated to tell the truth when they are not under oath
  • When they insist on things that are denied by the 'hard news' side of their same network or newspaper
  • When they make claims contradicted by their own official report
  • When evidence and data take a back seat to feelings and anecdotes
  • When they, as non-professionals, attack widely-held professional opinion--especially when it includes demonization of the professionals themselves
  • When they widely proclaim that they are being oppressed and silenced (assuming they live in a free society)
  • When there are no hard, disappointing truths; only corruption and conspiracy
  • When they avoid introspection, never admit to being wrong about anything of substance, or fail to give any principled reasons for changing their mind
  • When they say that evidence will be forthcoming--especially when they keep saying it
  • When their primary concern is "controlling the narrative" or winning the debate
  • When they invoke patriotism and religion to help sell their crap
  • When they have a history of being full of crap
  • When they are incentivized to be full of crap
  • When they deny that crap is, in fact, crap

3 comments:

Anonymous,  12/11/2020 11:48:00 AM  

It should be noted that Trump did actually drain the swamp, but he replaced it with a cesspool. Oh, crap!

vaxhacker,  12/15/2020 12:02:00 AM  

Spot on. The worst thing is how many of these things we just shrug off, having grown accustomed to them being so commonplace in the last few years.

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