We Live In The Age of The Bullshitter

I'm always writing about how our biggest influencers like Yuval Noah Harari (a fellow Israeli), are simply making stuff up as they go along - but it sounds far more convincing when a journalist says it: "Yuval Noah Harari, a bestselling historian and favorite author of Barack Obama, predicted an end to pandemics in 2017 and makes unsupported claims about scientific fields he doesn’t understand." Current Affairs

Nathan J. Robinson's latest: We Live In The Age of The Bullshitter in Current Affairs

As I'm always explaining, the human ego is growing in our time. And until we learn what to do with that excess ego, we're going to use it to destroy ourselves.

It looks like none of our top "influencers" or institutions passed his BS test: "The online conservative video platform “PragerU ” is not a real university, but Harvard is theoretically supposed to be one. Yet Harvard PhDs can be just as?confident in ignorant opinions ?as any other blowhard. The?New York Times and?Wall Street Journal op-ed pages are regularly filled with poorly-reasoned rubbish, and I seem to spend half my time trying to expose the faulty logic of some of our most highly-credentialed and trusted sources."?

He goes on to list the attributes of these "experts" - "The bullshitter is not just marked by a failure to test their opinions against the facts of the world. They are also characterized by having extreme confidence that they are right. The figures I have classified as bullshitters present themselves as authorities, and sometimes as sages or prophets. They issue predictions and consider themselves the embodiment of right-thinking reasonableness. The bullshitter’s arrogance is just as important as their relationship with the truth."

My Commentary

I see this Current Affairs expose on our top influencers as a significant milestone that the tides are finally turning. When will we stop giving everything we cherish the most (time, money, energy) to these celebrity influencers who are taking as much as they can for themselves? Not to mention that they have a huge influence over the next generation and are teaching them all the wrong things. Our warped priorities are leading us in the wrong direction.

On the one hand I'm excited to see a serious journalist call their BS, but on the other hand, I'll be even more excited when the media understands this transformation we're all going through.

So on the one hand I'm excited to see a serious journalist call their BS, but on the other hand, I'll be even more excited when the media understands this transformation we're all going through.

It's very easy to see how this problem will keep escalating until it will eventually get completely out of control. These famous people are simply at the top of this egoistic system we all created together. As I'm always explaining, the human ego is growing in our time. And until we learn what to do with that excess ego, we're going to use it to destroy ourselves.

We all have our own interest groups - the 1%, journalists, politicians - all of humanity is divided up into interest groups. If we continue to focus on slinging mud at each other, this won't end well.

My Recommendation

Until we reach a common understanding that we need to through a global transformation together, the situation will keep deteriorating on all fronts.

When do we take a sick person to a doctor? At the point where we know how to explain to the doctor what's ailing us - that awareness is already 50% of the solution. And in this way there is a better chance the person will receive the right medication. We're currently very far from this.

Let's be a bit more serious and think about how to shift things to a more practical place. We need to have a balanced economy where people don't need to worry about their livelihood - this is the foundation for everything else.

The days of the individual ego are over. Right before the end of a process there's always a spike. That's what we're witnessing these days with all the celebrity influencers popping up and crashing, and this is only the beginning. I'm always looking one step ahead, at what will come after this influencer cycle we're currently caught up in.