I used to work for Anthroplogie (kinda bougie clothing store). We sold bound copies of On Bullshit, marketed largely because the title is funny and would look good on a coffee table. One day, while it was slow, I started reading it. In case folks don’t know, it’s actually a guy’s doctoral thesis for his philosophy degree and aims to establish “bullshit” as a philosophical category. It’s brilliant and completely changed the way I see things.

See, philosophy is battle between truth and falsehood. The author argues that bullshit is a greater threat to truth than a lie. This is because a lie needs the truth in order to be effective, whereas bullshit does not care one way or another. What we’re seeing now is not the US government lying to people. It’s the US government spouting bullshit. So yeah, they don’t care if the lie is good. Because they’re not lying. They’re bullshitting.

EDIT: Apparently there are now two books with that title! The one of which I’m referring is by Harry Frankfurt (and is available online as a PDF if I’m not mistaken).