From time to time, Bill Svelmoe, a college professor in Indiana, comes to the table to bring an understanding to his readers. We have theatre in common and that's enough. He's much more into Politics than I, but his point of view is one that I like and it makes sense to me.
His take on the daily news as of Sunday, August 7, 2022 lays it on pretty thick. Thanks Bill.
This is shared from Facebook with Bill Svelmoe's permission.
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- Matt Gaetz and Roger Stone caught on tape.Gaetz: “You’re a bullshit artist, not a liar.”Stone: “Correct. There’s a big difference.”Correct. There is a big difference.As philosopher Harry Frankfurt pointed out in his book "On Bullshit," a liar is often a very clever person with a genuine connection to the truth. A liar knows what the truth is and deliberately tells you an untruth in order to steer you away from the truth. Liars are likely too smart to lie about something that is easily disproved. They don't want to get caught.But a bullshit artist has no connection to the truth at all. The truth is simply whatever they desire it to be in the moment. So the bullshit artist does not think beyond the needs of that moment. What do I need to say to get me successfully through this moment? And in that moment, the bullshit artist may or may not actually believe what they are saying. It really matters little, as they have little actual relationship with the truth at all. In fact, sometimes they might actually speak the truth quite by accident.Trump, and those who follow in his wake, are bullshit artists. You see this in the fact that Trump is incapable, apparently, of thinking beyond the moment. A very dangerous trait to have in a leader by the way. A basic trait which humans, indeed all higher order animals, evolved in order to survive is the ability to make decisions based on future outcomes. You see this ability in the squirrel that starts across the road, sees the oncoming car, hesitates, then sprints back to safety. Basic survival. How will this decision affect my future?Trump, as with all accomplished bullshitters, seems not to have evolved this trait in any substantial way. Whatever bullshit is required in the moment to let him avoid facing his own shortcomings shapes the words that come out of his mouth.You see this in the infamous cruise ship incident from early in the pandemic. Trump wanted to keep the cruise ship filled with Americans offshore because he didn't want the "numbers" to go up that day. Now any human with a modicum of the kind of adaptive intelligence required to survive on this planet knows that whatever the numbers might be on that day, in a pandemic those numbers will matter not one whit tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Nobody will remember or even care what the numbers were that day. So even the dullest human being would know that future numbers will be how a leader is judged.But for the bullshit artist only what is needed for the moment is seen. And "truth" is whatever gets one "successfully," as in with the least loss of face, through that moment. Only the numbers of that day would get Trump to his pillow at night with the happy dream that all was well with the world.And so we get the well documented daily stream of bullshit from Trump and his followers about anything and everything, including that he won the last election. But I am convinced Trump is more dangerous than your typical liar. Because Trump has no idea what the truth of these matters really is. He genuinely believes whatever his brain, such as it is, cooks up for the moment to get him through that moment. That the lie will be exposed in an hour, or a day, never enters his head. Because an accomplished bullshitter like Trump will have a new "truth" to ease his passage through that future confrontation.As we’ve seen with Trump, a bullshit artist can have a great deal of success in life. Lots of money to be made from the rubes with bullshit. You can build quite a following.But, as Trump and his band of buffoons have found out since the election, and as Alex Jones found out this week, bullshit, while it can get you far, runs into a stone wall, or what we might call a category error, when you wind up in a courtroom. Judges, even judges appointed by the world’s greatest bullshit artist, tend to recognize the difference between bullshit and fact/truth. Their professional lives depend on making such fine distinctions.It has been fascinating, and very gratifying, to watch Alex Jones get his comeuppance in court this week. Very gratifying to see a $50 million-dollar verdict. And fascinating to see a bullshit artist in the mold of Trump struggle to come to grips with the difference in a court of law between his bullshit and the truth.“You must tell the truth while you testify,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble gently admonished the befuddled Jones. “This is not your show. You need to slow down and not take what you see as opportunities to further the message you’re wanting to further and instead only answer the specific and exact questions you have been asked.”I love the injunction to "slow down." Bringing one's mind to a place of truth often requires time, a moment of reflection, the sober pause. But the mind of the bullshit artist is always racing. No need to pause and reflect. The boxer instinctively brings his hands up to protect his face. The knight needs no thought to throw up his shield. The bullshit artist operates on this self-protective instinct. A lifetime of practice. An enormous fund upon which to draw. The Joy's John is very deep. (NOTE.. 'Joy's John' is what we call "Porta Potties" in California)When have you ever seen Trump pause to reflect when asked a question? Never. There is just the immediate response. Whatever is needed in the moment to get to the next moment. Injury free.Jones was clearly puzzled. Nonplussed. He didn't understand the distinction being made by the judge. He argued that he believed he was telling the truth.Judge Gamble, in a moment that so clearly encapsulated a real dilemma of our modern world, perhaps "the" dilemma of our modern world, had to carefully explain to Jones the difference between an alternative reality media world and a court of law. In the law, she told him, truth was actually a real thing.Judge Gamble: “You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t. Just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It is not allowed. You’re under oath.”Simply a wonderful moment! But a truth that needs to be carefully delineated over and over to our friends who have fallen under the spell of Trumpism. Just because you think something is true does not make it true. How often have you heard it from your conservative friends? “Well, that’s your point of view. I have my point of view.” But ultimately a point of view is only as valid as the truth/facts upon which it is grounded. Jesus, in one of his parables, referred to this as building one’s house upon a rock rather than upon sand.The problem for Trump and Trumpers is that their house, their point of view, is built on sand. And, while I’ll be the first to admit that, in so far as a house built on sand has a great view of the water, such a house can be very attractive. But, eventually, the water will rise.And, in my little Jesus parable, the rising water for Trump, Alex Jones, and Trumpers in general, well, let’s just say that particular spigot is most often turned these days by a judge and a jury and smart lawyers.Alex Jones saw his house washed away this week. We eagerly await the rising flood exacting a similar accountability on the palaces of the Stable Genius …
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