Truth, bullshit and reputation

Bullshit: a prose-like substance which, on the first sight, looks like it has substance - but it's lacking it. Characterised by being order-of-magnitude harder to dismiss than to produce. It abuses norms of good-faith intellectual engagement. Truth: what actually is, not what someone believes or wishes to be. At odds with motivated reasoning. Reputation: a tool for saving effort on verifying claims from people who are repeatedly full of shit and/or bad actors (the distinction isn't important in practice). Earned or lost through repeated pattern of behaviour. You don't judge the quality of any individual work based on author's reputation, you judge whether it is worth engaging with in the first place. Therefore: the work of people who repeatedly over the course of their career engage in bullshiting, motivated reasoning and disregard for truth should be disregarded not on its merits but on the basis authors reputation. They spew out an adversarial input and the only winning move is not…