Bullshit

[ajandick]

The phrase "bullshit" comes from the world of antique faking. To give a fake the proper look of an antiquity, the faker buries it in bullshit for a period of time. The acids and juices contained therein produce a wonderful, seemingly real patina to the fake. So one test the antique dealer makes to spot the fake from the real is to take a deep, close smell of the item. Bullshit smells like bull shit.

Bullshit is defined not so much by the end product as by the process by which it is created.

"Bullshit" is both noun and verb. This duality distinguishes bullshit from its near-relative, "horseshit".

Bullshit has a solidity and dignity, even a grandeur, that chickenshit lacks.

Bullshit requires some real theatre and performance. Chickenshit gives up on that.

Power corrupts. Absolute power engenders chickenshit.

Somebody bullshitted me can be identical to the word "lie", but bullshit can be substantively true, and still be bullshit.

The defining characteristic of bullshit is not that the bullshitter is lying; an act that requires the perpetrator to know the truth in the first place, but that the bullshitter doesn't care one way or the other and neither does the bullshitee.

Bullshit, in the name of God and Freedom, is divine.

There's no reward for the high road.

You can bullshit just as well when you're right as when you're wrong. Bullshit is what you produce when you're willing to say whatever you think might carry your point with whomever you happen to be talking to.

Bullshit sells!

The surest way to make a sale is to promise more for less. How can the unglamorous truth compete?

The successful salesman quickly takes the measure of a clientele's prejudices and then loudly and indignantly affirms them.

George Bush is about as full of bullshit as you can get without actually being the actual colon of an actual bull.

When he wasn't lying under oath, Bill Clinton often tried to say something people really ought to think about.

The Reagan administration elevated bullshit to actual policy.

A teacher is rarely a good bullshitter. He is too busy maintaining order and preparing for standardized tests.

Good point. Very Bullshitious of you.

All truth is seen from a point of view.

It's time to grab the bull by the tail and face the facts.

Free speech inevitably morphs into bullshit.

You can't bullshit a bullshitter. Well you can bullshit a bullshitter, but you're really not bullshitting a bullshitter that knows you're bullshitting. Well you are, but you aren't. Bullshitting is different somewhat from bullshit. Bullshitting is primal personal negotiation. Bullshit is just bullshit.

The bull path can be very slippery. Better to consider a safer place to tread.

Edited August 22, 2006 by ajandick

[Mr Jones]

What a load of Bullshit