Suchergebnisse

« Comment se peut-il qu'à chaque époque, tout le monde ou presque pense en même temps la même chose ? Les idées fausses seraient-elles véhiculées par l'air du temps ? Sans doute ont-elles le mérite d'être confortables et indiscutables ? Peu importe au grand nombre que l'idée reçue soit exacte ou non, aussi longtemps qu'elle tient lieu d'explication du monde, évite la controverse et n'oblige surtout pas à chercher plus loin. Cette contagion de l'erreur a été, pour notre temps, qualifiée de Pensée unique. Mais l'idée reçue n'est pas seulement un mensonge, elle est aussi une vérité alternative. Celui ou celle qui la professe ne cherche pas à connaître le vrai : il vit dans un monde alternatif, avec une vérité alternative, communément partagée, donc chaleureuse. Ce phénomène, largement amplifié par l'explosion des réseaux sociaux, a été appelé pensée Bullshit aux Etats-Unis : je me propose donc d'introduire le terme dans la langue française, car le Bullshit ne connaît pas de frontières. »

Contributor(s): Professor David Graeber | This episode is dedicated to David Graeber, LSE professor of Anthropology, who died unexpectedly in September this year. David was a public intellectual, a best-selling author, an influential activist and anarchist.
He took aim at the pointless bureaucracy of modern life, memorably coining the term 'bullshit jobs'. And his book 'Debt: The First 5000 years' was turned into a radio series by the BBC.
But David started his academic career studying Madagascar. Anthropology interested him, he said, because he was interested in human possibilities - including the potential of societies to organise themselves without the need for a state - as he had seen in his own research.
He was also a well-known anti-globalisation activist and a leading figure in the Occupy Wall Street Movement.
David was generous enough to do an interview for us in 2016 when LSE iQ was in its infancy. That episode asked, 'What's the future of work?' and in his interview he reflected on the disappointments of technology, pointless jobs and caring labour.
David was such an interesting speaker that we would have liked to use more of it at the time, but we didn't have the space. Now, it feels right to bring you a lightly edited version of the interview.

Contributors
David Graeber

Research

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, published by Melville House.

'On the Phenomenon of Bullshit jobs: A work rant', STRIKE! Magazine

Bullshit Jobs: A theory, published by Allen Lane

On 15 December 2023, the Swiss Federal Council (Government) announced that it intended to start formal negotiations with the EU on the conclusion of a Framework Agreement (FA) 2.0. Five existing and two new treaties between the EU and Switzerland are to be subject to dynamic alignment and institutionalised, i.e. provided with a monitoring and judicial mechanism. The project, which is practically fixed in the decisive questions by a "Common Understanding" ("CU") between the two parties, is based on a triple B approach: in substance, it consists of unsuccessful bricolage, the foundations were laid by bullshit, and because elections and a change of the Commission are imminent in the EU, bustle is supposedly of the essence. The CU summarizes what the Parties have informally agreed on.

Pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity is the tendency to perceive meaning in important-sounding, nonsense statements. To understand how bullshit receptivity differs across domains, we develop a scale to measure scientific bullshit receptivity — the tendency to perceive truthfulness in nonsensical scientific statements. Across three studies (total N = 1,948), scientific bullshit receptivity was positively correlated with pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Both types of bullshit receptivity were positively correlated with belief in science, conservative political beliefs, and faith in intuition. However, compared to pseudoprofound bullshit receptivity, scientific bullshit receptivity was more strongly correlated with belief in science, and less strongly correlated with conservative political beliefs and faith in intuition. Finally, scientific literacy moderated the relationship the two types of bullshit receptivity; the correlation between the two types of receptivity was weaker for individuals scoring high in scientific literacy.

Die Bundesregierung hat ein neues Lieblingsthema: mehr Abschiebungen. Dafür greift sie zu immer härteren Mitteln. So müssen Ausländer:innen ohne Papiere ihre Handys durchsuchen lassen. Ein tiefer Eingriff in die Privatsphäre, der noch dazu weitgehend nutzlos ist. Wir berichten seit Jahren darüber und entlarven die falschen Argumente der Behörden. Denn digitale Grundrechte gelten für alle.

EU-Innenkommissarin Ylva Johansson kämpft für die Chatkontrolle und damit für eine gefährliche Form der Massenüberwachung. Sie ist die mächtige Endgegnerin in Brüssel: Wir entlarven die falschen und irreführenden Argumente der Kommissarin – und verteidigen so die digitalen Grundrechte aller.