Misinformation is nothing new. Since the very beginning of our civilization there have been bullshit artists who spew their beloved bullshit for numerous reasons, from fooling other tribes for strategic reasons to, on an individual level, attracting potential mates.
As societies grew larger and more complex, so did the way in which bullshit is spread. Collective myths and legends became large scale religions with hundreds of thousands, and eventually billions, of adherents and believers of organized and well-structured bullshit.
With the advent of radio and then television, more creative forms of bullshit spread more quickly and efficiently. Televangelists made their way into people’s living rooms, their bullshit persuading the gullible to open their wallets and fiddle desperately for their credit cards.
Then came the internet, a worldwide web with an endless array of channels through which nearly every citizen on Earth can be bombarded with bullshit on a regular basis. Televangelists morphed into more capitalistic creatures, pushing get rich quick pyramid schemes. Then came the flood of new age gurus, who got rich telling people they can get rich by simply thinking about money, making it magically appear into their bank accounts as long as they “think positively.”
Today, bullshit comes in so many different flavors, sizes, shapes and colors, to the point where too many people can no longer distinguish bullshit from non-bullshit.
The Covid pandemic really highlighted how susceptible the masses are to bullshit, with countless youtubers claiming to be experts, and so called “documentaries” tying the outbreak to every conspiracy theory imaginable. Bullshit rain turned into a bullshit storm, with bullshit coming from all directions, even from the highest levels of government.
YouTube, and more recently TikTok, have become breeding grounds for the most creative forms of bullshit: fried, sautéed, baked, even barbequed bullshit. Even older, outdated manifestations of bullshit have been resuscitated, like the flat earth movement, which continues to grow.
Eating bullshit instead of food
A friend of mine was recently struck by a bolt of bullshit straight out of the sky. He told me about something called Inedia, also known as breatharianism, or the supposed ability to live without food or water, not for a few days, but for an entire lifetime. In recent years there have been “gurus” making substantial amounts of money selling books promoting their breatharian bullshit.
Adherents of breatharianism have been found dead from dehydration.
Among the most well-known breatharian bullshit celebrities is Jasmuheen (her real name is Ellen Greve), who makes a living selling books and paid programs about how to live on sunlight only (yes, people pay her to learn how to dehydrate and starve themselves). After the program 60 minutes challenged Jasmuheen to prove her claims, she accepted and was put under observation for days to prove she could actually live without food or water.
After several days under constant observation, Jasmuheen got skinnier and skinnier and nearly died of dehydration, and the experiment was called off on a doctor’s orders. Yet Jasmuheen continued to insist she lives without food or water and claimed 60 minutes had somehow “rigged” the test against her, a rather unique bullshit argument.
Bullshit gains traction
The bullshitsphere will continue to grow in the coming years. There will be more nuanced versions of old myths, from things as simple as the outdated notion that humans must eat animal flesh to be healthy (yes, that’s bullshit), to age-old recycled ones like the idea that Earth is shaped like a gargantuan pancake floating in space, to more innovative bullshit like the belief that celebrities and politicians gather for rituals, drinking children’s blood before sacrificing them to Satan.
But how can so many people get lured into such organized forms of bullshit? Aren’t we supposed to be evolving and getting smarter?
No, we’re not.
When the internet first came out, many people believed the ability to easily share information from all corners of the globe would make us more intelligent and enlightened. But the opposite has proven to be true. Attention spans have dropped significantly, especially among young people, and the most efficient way to capture their attention is by way of short, simple, and entertaining videos.
The problem is reality is often complex, and understanding the world can require extensive reading. Short videos oversimplify our world, with no regard for nuance, the reason politics has become so polarized, and as attention spans dwindle, so do critical thinking skills, weakening the brain’s defences against the deluge of bullshit circulating the internet and television.
Is there a way out of the bullshit crisis?
People often say education is the key to solving the world’s problems. Not necessarily. In the US, for example, 1 in 3 school teachers teach their students that human activities have nothing to do with climate change, when in reality they have just about everything to do with it.
Even populations in countries known for their high education standards have fallen victim to the flood of bullshit reigning in on our global civilization. In 2020, for example, Bloomberg reported on the extraordinary rise of Qanon conspiracy believers in Japan (the same people who believe politicians and celebrities are sacrificing children to Satan).
Japan has one of the best education systems on the planet.
For now, there will continue to be gurus who get rich from getting people to pay for more of their bullshit, there will be more organized and politicized bullshit in the form of denying reality and the promotion of bullshit via conspiracy theories, and the bullshitsphere will continue to gain traction as our lives become increasingly digitalized.
And yes, this is a problem. Bullshit can make people do crazy things, from starving themselves to inciting riots and organizing lynch mobs, to starting wars.
As unpopular as the idea may be, there needs to be a collaborative international effort to overhaul how and what information is shared, otherwise, as is the case with the Earth’s warming climate, bullshit storms will only get bigger, stronger and more ubiquitous, while our ability to reason melts away like the glaciers and polar icecaps.
And that means we’re in deep shit.
If you’re a passionate reader then you may very well enjoy my fiction novel The Shadow in the Mirror, where you can find out what’s actually going on with Harold Hopkins (genre: paranormal suspense).
Harold’s only wish is to lead a normal life. Yet for reasons he can’t comprehend, he is shunned by all living things. No matter how hard he tries, he is unable to garner attention from the woman he loves, nor can he foster genuine friendships or find a decent job. Meanwhile, since childhood, he has been haunted by his own reflection in the mirror, which frequently acts as a window to another world. The person on the other side is everything Harold wishes he could be, like a clone of himself leading the fruitful life he was destined to lead. He finally sets off in search of answers, where he learns about the unearthly events that took place when he was born, and discovers the tantalizing truth about his own existence…
