Culture of Exaggeration

Hot damn. That is the most intelligent thing I have heard said since I read "On Bullshit," by the august Professor Harry Frankfurt.

Now the context where that phrase was used was in a discussion I heard in a NPR Science Friday piece, concerning forensic evidence. Specifically, the context was how it was perhaps A BAD THING when doctors and forensic techs speak in such terms as:

100% CERTAINTY.

As opposed to the more honest and ethical:

In my Opinion, 100% certain.

Ya, that disctinction is almost false (in that court room evidence context), but that is not why I bring up this as my topic.

I think that that phrase is applicable to a far wider range of issues than merely courtroom forensics, particularly American Politics.

I wish I could say that only the other team does it, but I guess I am not willing to exaggerate on that point myself here (that would sorta kill the effectiveness of my "observation.")

(I think that I need to tie things up here, so) I will just do it this way. If you can, read "On Bullshit," as that is the real primer on the core idea of what is wrong with our society, but until you do that, be on the lookout for exaggeration and those who exaggerate routinely (otherwise known as bullshit and bullshitters.) They and it are (at least one of the major) poisons sapping the health of the body politic.