Complete and Utter Bollocks

I love social media. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. I love people too. I really do, no matter how annoying they are. At least if nothing else they can provide entertainment and....blog inspiration.

Some people are brighter than others. Some are so dim you get this urge to switch the lights on. Some just.....

OK. So there are facts, and there are opinions. And there are people who confuse the two (HOW?). But there is a special phenomenon that we English call bollocks. A useful word, the dictionary offers the following:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bollocks

Which includes:

3. Exaggerated truth or blatant lies. 

But to me, it isn't just nonsense. It is when a person states something that is not only stupid, but can be EASILY demonstrated to be so, and yet they say it as if it were objective, proven fact. THEN they get offended when you call them out on it. Like nobody ever factchecks, or knows how to Google, or whatever.

So, while it's easy to use the word bollocks to refer to anything you disagree with, I prefer to save it for such occasions. If I say you are talking bollocks, I am not simply saying that I disagree with you, OK?

I'm saying "Are you crazy? Because I can easily prove you completely wrong, if I can be bothered to do so."

And this is important. Because quite often it's not worth the effort. This will not be a debate. Or even an argument. It will result in the bollocks-talker having such a fine, well-thought out rebuttal as:

"Well, that's what I believe anyway."

OR

"My personal experience is more important than your data."

OR

"You don't know me."

I think the latter is my favourite, because it is emotional drivel. I try not to judge people that I don't know well, based on short exchanges, but if I hear "you don't know me" I am immediately 100% certain that I don't want to.

But let's look at option #2 there.

Yesterday I found myself face to face on Facebook with a lady who was claiming to have had avian flu 4 times. As there have only ever been 2 cases total in Canada, that's quite the claim. And both of those were, as you might expect, reported in the media, and they weren't her. She claimed many other things that were also complete fantasy, and when given proof (data) of her mistaken.....um....opinions, her reaction was to take offence and then bugger off. Which is standard in such matters.

She's a lovely example of this phenomenon, but hardly alone.

Who does it remind you of?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/07/media-matters-oreilly-killing-truth-e-book_n_7019488.html

There is a recognized mental disorder, where otherwise quite normal people (can function fully in society, hold responsible jobs etc) can't stop telling lies. They invent stories to make themselves look brave, clever, or to act as credentials for their views. It's not quite Forest Gump material, but it is sometimes....borderline.

Some years ago, I frequented a Yahoo chatroom of regulars, and met some very nice people (and some utterly horrible people, but it was educational just the same), and one of my "friends" there, eventually anyway, was a young man who claimed to be an angel.

So I called bollocks on him, and I wavered between treating it as a running joke, wondering if he was completely delusional, and trying to demonstrate why he couldn't be. That's my failing, I try to bring logic into everything.

With him, because he was harmless enough (really very nice actually, I wish we hadn't lost touch) after a while I just let it go. OK, you identify as an angel? Whatever. I treated him in the same way I treat my transsexual friends. i.e. you are who you feel you are. We're cool. I didn't tease, and I stuck up for him. BUT...at no point did I ever believe him (unlike my transsexual friends), because saying you are an angel is bollocks.

I mention this case because sometimes you can ignore bollocks.

Bollocks isn't an opinion. I mean......I could say that it's the criteria used when we decide how much religious belief we don't share, but can tolerate. But much of that cannot be proven either way. That's why it's called belief, and belief is just glorified opinion. Even if you call bollocks on many religious beliefs, you can't actually prove them wrong, such is the nature of the thing. This is why religious tolerance is a separate category.

With bollocks you COULD insist that the bollocks-talker stop talking bollocks. Simply on the basis on it being an untruth. You could present them with the data, and show how it isn't opinion they are spouting. You could say "everyone is entitled to an opinion, but you are just plain wrong" - but unfortunately statements like that are made so often that they have become meaningless.

When we debate we often swing back and forth between opinions and facts, and without some sort of signal as to which is which a person could get quite lost, but in informal discussion it doesn't really matter because those who contradict you will do so regardless.

That's normal. We cope. We don't usually feel the need to say "opinion" or "fact" after every statement we make.

But now and again a claim is made that is just so outrageous, it's different. It stands out.

"The earth is flat."

"There was no holocaust."

"Aliens built it."

"Lizard men run the planet,"

"Elvis is still alive."

Some even catch on, that is to say, they get shared.

This is not new of course - throughout history there has been wild folklore that looks silly now, but at the time it was accepted, because nobody could really prove otherwise. You either believed it or you didn't. Some of it became religious doctrine, and it became dangerous bollocks. These days we have conspiracy theories and other bollocks, but we can relax because far cleverer people than ourselves have done the work and made the rebuttals.

We don't even have to waste our time with people whose minds were so open they fell out.

Until we do. Until they walk into our lives, and then, well, then we have to decide how to deal with it.

I try, at first at least, not to be rude. Be kind rather than right. It's a good way to live. Sometimes though, I see a risk. There may be others who could take it verbatim. Maybe the young, the credulous, the compromised. If the bollocks is dangerous, there's a strong chance I'll say "Now, wait a minute. You are entitled to your opinion, but I have to call you on this one." Sometimes your objection will be called rude. Sometimes it will be mocked. So before you begin, you have to be ready for objection to the objection.

I've learned not to wade in too fast. I've learned to let it go unless I see real harm being done.

There is not one damn person alive who is right all of the time. Impossible. And there is nobody who is completely logical, even. We are not Spock, we can't do it. For a start we fall in love, and we are prone to other emotions. And preferences. Preferences are often not logical, and sometimes quite solid.

And (thankfully) we change our minds. We get new data, we have new experiences.

But some things really are just bollocks. Unsubstantiated drivel. Balderdash. Claptrap. Garbage. Rot. Ordure. And lots of other synonyms for manure, which are all a weird choice considering how useful manure is, but there we go.

Know what else we hate doing? Calling somebody a liar. This suggests something wilful, and it's a strong word. We'll say it about someone, but rarely to their faces. We were brought up to be more tactful than that. So we say "I think you are mstaken" instead. The way a person reacts to that is your clue. If it's bollocks they will resort to argument rather than debate (oh yes, there is a difference). If they are wise they will go and look it up for themselves. That's all you were ever asking anyway. Check your facts.

Sometimes we are all wrong, be it fact or opinion. Yes, an opinion can be wrong, that's a topic for another day, but it can happen. But there is no excuse for talking bollocks. It may be from laziness, it may be psychopathic, it may be with a malicious intent. It may just be stupidity. We dn't have to sink to their level of lack of thought, and it's better to temper critical thought with kindness (in my humble opinion, which I'll defend to the end!). Just once in a while, it has to be done.