Cigar
12-02-2015, 09:44 PM
He's something worse: a bullshit artist.
Falsehoods fly out of Donald Trump’s mouth with such unstoppable frequency that it’s tempting to describe him as a liar. Among the recent Trumpian untruths is his claim to have seen a video (http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/) showing “thousands and thousands” of Muslim Americans cheering 9/11 in Jersey City, New Jersey, an event there is no record of, video or otherwise. Trump has also retweeted and vigorously defended the claim (http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/) that 81 percent of whites who are murdered are killed by blacks (the actual number for last year is 15 percent). And he has asserted (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/18/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-obama-administration-pushing-ref/), contrary to fact, that the federal government is sending refugees to states with “Republicans, not to the Democrats.”
Yet the increasingly frequent tendency of Trump’s critics to label him a liar (https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/23/donald-trump-is-constantly-lying/) is wrongheaded. Trump is something worse than a liar. He is a bullshit artist. In his 2005 book On Bullshit (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7929.html), Harry G. Frankfurt, emeritus philosophy professor at Princeton University, makes an important distinction between lying and bullshitting—one that is extremely useful for understanding the pernicious impact that Trump has on public life. Frankfurt’s key observation is that the liar, even as he or she might spread untruth, inhabits a universe where the distinction between truth and falsehood still matters. The bullshitter, by contrast, does not care what is true or not. By his or her bluffing, dissimilation, and general dishonesty, the bullshit artist works to erase the very possibility of knowing the truth. For this reason, bullshit is more dangerous than lies, since it erodes even the possibility of truth existing and being found.
https://newrepublic.com/article/124803/donald-trump-not-liar
Lawrence O'Donnell Blasts TV Media For Not Calling Donald Trump A Liar
MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell tore into television journalists on Tuesday for not calling Donald Trump a liar when he makes false claims on their programs.
"Donald Trump lies because he knows he can get away with it," O'Donnell said on "The Last Word," highlighting the interviewing techniques of anchors on Sunday morning news programs. "The most impolite candidate in American political history relies on the politeness of his interviewers to get away with lying."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawrence-odonnell-donald-trump_5655d84ee4b072e9d1c15249
Falsehoods fly out of Donald Trump’s mouth with such unstoppable frequency that it’s tempting to describe him as a liar. Among the recent Trumpian untruths is his claim to have seen a video (http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/) showing “thousands and thousands” of Muslim Americans cheering 9/11 in Jersey City, New Jersey, an event there is no record of, video or otherwise. Trump has also retweeted and vigorously defended the claim (http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/) that 81 percent of whites who are murdered are killed by blacks (the actual number for last year is 15 percent). And he has asserted (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/18/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-obama-administration-pushing-ref/), contrary to fact, that the federal government is sending refugees to states with “Republicans, not to the Democrats.”
Yet the increasingly frequent tendency of Trump’s critics to label him a liar (https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/23/donald-trump-is-constantly-lying/) is wrongheaded. Trump is something worse than a liar. He is a bullshit artist. In his 2005 book On Bullshit (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7929.html), Harry G. Frankfurt, emeritus philosophy professor at Princeton University, makes an important distinction between lying and bullshitting—one that is extremely useful for understanding the pernicious impact that Trump has on public life. Frankfurt’s key observation is that the liar, even as he or she might spread untruth, inhabits a universe where the distinction between truth and falsehood still matters. The bullshitter, by contrast, does not care what is true or not. By his or her bluffing, dissimilation, and general dishonesty, the bullshit artist works to erase the very possibility of knowing the truth. For this reason, bullshit is more dangerous than lies, since it erodes even the possibility of truth existing and being found.
https://newrepublic.com/article/124803/donald-trump-not-liar
Lawrence O'Donnell Blasts TV Media For Not Calling Donald Trump A Liar
MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell tore into television journalists on Tuesday for not calling Donald Trump a liar when he makes false claims on their programs.
"Donald Trump lies because he knows he can get away with it," O'Donnell said on "The Last Word," highlighting the interviewing techniques of anchors on Sunday morning news programs. "The most impolite candidate in American political history relies on the politeness of his interviewers to get away with lying."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawrence-odonnell-donald-trump_5655d84ee4b072e9d1c15249