Abstract
‘Fake news’ has become an increasingly common refrain in public discourse. The term itself has several uses, at least one of which constitutes Frankfurtian bullshit. After examining what sorts of fake news appeals do and do not count as bullshit, I discuss strategies for overcoming our openness to such bullshit. I do so by drawing a parallel between openness to bullshit and naïve skepticism—one’s willingness to reject the concept of truth on unsupported or ill-considered grounds—and suggest that this parallel indicates three principles for how we ought to combat our openness to fake news and other bullshit. First, the root causes of bullshit openness are not monolithic; we should adopt anti-bullshit strategies in recognition of this fact. Second, our efforts to overcome bullshit openness should be collaborative efforts to create an environment that allows for sustained interrogation of our bullshit openness, rather than a confrontational provision of contrary evidence, despite the fact that such strategies are more time-intensive. Third, social media is unlikely to be a fertile ground on which we will make meaningful progress in the fight against bullshit because of the inherent nature of social media platforms as spaces for short, declarative, confrontational claims.
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Notes
As of May 30, 2019, a search of Trump’s Twitter feed for the phrase 'fake news' reveals 394 tweets containing the phrase.
The language in all three cases closely matches language used in the introduction to Volume II of the report, which states that 'if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him' (Mueller 2019: 2).
The study of this phenomenon within an essentially academic context has led to some divergence in nomenclature. The most common alternatives to naïve skepticism are 'student relativism' (Erion 2005; Satris 1986), 'reflective relativism' (Momeyer 1995), and 'naïve relativism' (Andre 1983). None, however, seems to capture important features of the phenomenon in that relativism omits the possibility of a total rejection of truth. Further, framing the phenomenon in terms of students obscures the fact that it is the naiveté that is at issue, rather than the skeptic’s status as a student.
The respondents cannot be engaging in intellectually lazy behavior because the evidence is literally right in front of them. Schaffner and Luks argue that respondents are also not engaging in motivated reasoning because the facial unreasonableness of the corresponding belief (e.g., the believe that the Trump inaugural photo really has more people than the Obama inaugural) seems to rule out essentially anyone from genuinely holding the belief.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of writing titles or headlines in order to maximize search engine-generated traffic. While academia does not contain the worst offenders (e.g., 'Five stars who are huge jerks: You won’t believe number three!'), the increasing importance of scholarly search engines like Google Scholar, Academia.edu, and so forth prioritizes easily searchable and enticing titles.
For an example of this strategy in response to so-called 'alternative facts,' see (Cooper 2019).
To 'dunk on' a comment is to provide a forceful response that fundamentally undermines or defeats the purpose of the original comment. For example, in response to Denise McAllister’s complaint about the American television show The View being a 'roundtable of delusional mental midgets ricocheting ignorance and lack of emotional regulation' (McAllister 2019), Meghan McCain, one of the show’s cohosts, was widely viewed as dunking on McAllister by simply replying, 'you were at my wedding, Denise…. [sic]' (McCain 2019).
A tweet is 'ratioed' when the number of comments on said tweet drastically outnumbers both retweets and likes, suggesting that the tweet is far more disliked than liked, to the point where the relationship between comments and likes/retweets can be expressed in a ratio. Presumably, if the comments were positive, commenters would also like and/or retweet the original tweet. Some Twitter users will contribute to a Tweet’s ratio by simply commenting to the effect of 'I’m just here for the ratio' (see, e.g., [Gannon 2019]).
As if to prove the point that Twitter is not a medium for sustained, good-faith discourse, Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) and his brother, Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein), were permanently banned from Twitter for sockpuppeting (i.e., maintaining multiple accounts under the guise that they were operated by different individuals) and purchasing interactions in an effort to publicize their antagonism of Trump (Concha 2019).
Briefly, both bills were called for and championed by Democratic administrations, though both pro- and anti-segregationist voices existed in both parties, largely along geographic lines. The 1960s saw such differences sorted via intra-party debates and ultimately concluded with Democrats generally in favor of civil rights legislation and Republicans generally opposed.
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Trump, D. [@realdonaldtrump]. (2018b). Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh. The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The fake news stories were just the opposite-disgraceful! [Tweet]. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057620518751428608. Accessed 8 May 2019.
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Trump, D. [@realdonaldtrump]. (2019d, October 10). Despite so many positive events and victories, Media Reseach Center reports that 92% of stories on Donald Trump are negative on ABC, CBS and ABC. It is FAKE NEWS! Don’t worry, the Failing New York Times didn’t even put the Brett Kavanaugh victory on the Front Page yesterday-A17! [Tweet]. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1050008315286171648 . Accessed 8 May 2019.
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Wright, J. 'Many People Are Saying…': Applying the Lessons of Naïve Skepticism to the Fight against Fake News and Other 'Total Bullshit'. Postdigit Sci Educ 2, 113–131 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00051-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00051-0