As always, place your entries in the comment thread below. (As always, the only prizes around here are fleeting fame and the admiration of regular readers.)
Background: This week’s contest is in honour of David Bullard, who took to Twitter in early February to accuse Michelle Solomon of fabricating the account of her rape. It’s hard to believe that anybody would sink so low. But if you missed the ruckus and don't believe me, here’s the Tweet:
(Bullard starts, as you can see, with a call to “face facts”.
When challenged later -- also on Twitter -- about how he could possibly know what he implied, he
said that he didn’t “claim to know any facts”. We leave the task of working out whether or not Harry Frankfurt's analysis of bullshit applies in this case, or whether this falls into some other category, to the reader.)
Some related links:
No thanks, rape NGO tells Bullard.
Bullard slammed over rape talk tweet.
Bullard criticised for tweets over rape.
David Bullard provokes outrage over offensive rape tweets.
Some related links:
No thanks, rape NGO tells Bullard.
Bullard slammed over rape talk tweet.
Bullard criticised for tweets over rape.
David Bullard provokes outrage over offensive rape tweets.
6 comments:
I suppose "Yo Dawg! We heard you like bull..." is a bit too obvious?
“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.”
― Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit
Here's another topical quotation from Harry Frankfurt's essay:
“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”
Good:Better:Best :: Bull:Bullard:Bullshit
(This is not a caption proposal, it's just a comment.) The bull-related wordplay is very tempting, but I don't think Frankfurt's analysis encourages the view that Bullard was bullshitting on this occasion. One who asserts what he knows he does not know is not a bullshitter, he's a liar. (And one who denies the very facts he'd previously asserted is, furthermore, a pretty incompetent liar.)
"Good:Better:Best..." is currently the front runner, I'd say.
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