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Bullshit literacy - a rubric

 Technology leader par excellance, Art Wolinsky, has developed a rubric to measure mastery of my tounge-in-cheek skills, Bullshit Literacy  Check it out.

BTW, Harry G. Frankfurt's book, On Bullshit, will be a stocking stuffer around here.

From the original posting of September 7, 2005:

The Bullshit Literate Student will:

1. Show no social conscience or balance when deliberately distorting factoids, data, or expert opinion in presenting a conclusion.
2. Skillfully use any medium and all persuasive techniques in order to convince others. This includes the ability to use technology to doctor images and edit text.
3. Consistently, vociferously, and blindly hold to a single point of view, and know that volume, repetition and rhetoric trump reason. (ie: Stay the course.)
4. Convincingly fake sincerity.
5. Ably disguise personal gain as public good.
6. Take a single incident or news story or incident and follow it to an illogical conclusion. (See employment prediction above.)
7. Claim any idea as original.
8. Deny prior knowledge. (ie: Nobody expected the breach of the levees)
9. Create a website, wiki, blog, or podcast. (beginning level). Find a publisher, broadcaster or corporate sponsor for whom the bottom line is the bottom line. (advanced).
10. Never, never, never show doubt.

Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 02:51PM by Registered CommenterDoug Johnson | Comments4 Comments | References1 Reference

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  • Response
    Response: Bullshit
    Someone wrote on a blog that in the future, those who don’t work for Wal-Mart, about 10% of the population, will make money out of their ability to bullshit.Don’t most of us? I’m not a great bullshitter, based on the rubric posted a...

Reader Comments (4)

Hells bells, you gave me a bit of a heart attack when I decided to check my feeds while the laptop here was still connected to my ActivBoard and your post title was on view to my class of eleven and twelve year olds. Luckily they were so on task, they didn't even notice. Are you sure you aren't talking about political media here?
November 21, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterGraham Wegner
Sorry, Graham. Maybe I should rate my site PG.I don't know if you can say "hells, bells" though in Kansas. (An expression I've not hear for a while. My favorite Oz expressions are still "no worries" and "gianormous.") I was thinking politics, of course, but it seems bullshit filters down throughout society.All the best,Doug
November 21, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterDoug Johnson
I wonder how many people could amuse themselves by secretly using Art's rubric during dinner conversation on Thanksgiving? Those annoying, opinionated relatives can perhaps be more tolerated if evalated objectively. I, of course, will not need to bring it along with me! Thanks, Art--Sara Kelly Johns
November 22, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterSara Kelly Johns
Talk about bullshit. This idiot is trying to find someone to shoot him in the head as a performance art piece.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=2374422
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterToby Bailey

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