Nobody was born BS-proof. We've all lied, said nonsense, regretted it, or maybe not. Sometimes the nonsense we shared did no harm to us or people around, and sometimes it really paid off. Like, white lies. These incredible little lies hold half honesty, half false chaos that spins the world around us.
It's a whole different story when we encounter serious lies. Like anti-vaxxers spreading false beliefs against Covid vaccinations on social media. In such cases, a lie targets the most vulnerable people of society who, for the lack of better information, find themselves in genuine belief that what they’re reading is pure truth.
Bored Panda reached out to Scott Berkun, the author of eight popular books on creativity, design, leadership and public speaking who was happy to share his insights on dealing with someone else’s BS. According to him, the first thing to tackle it is to expect it. “Fire alarms are good at detecting fires because they are always expecting them. We say some people have good BS detectors for the same reason. They’ve seen it enough times to sense it before the rest of us do.”
Scott believes that it’s not hard, but “it just means you need the habit of asking good questions before you accept what you see or hear. And learning what sources to trust more than others.”
Due to the rise of social media fake news, bogus claims, and lies, both little and big, seem to be spreading faster than ever. “Someday we will learn that technology accelerates everything, the good and the bad. Today is not that day. 300 years ago Jonathan Swift wrote that “Falsehood flies and the Truth comes limping after it” but everyone at Facebook at Twitter seems to have only recently figured this out.”
According to Scott, “Everyone should be taught media literacy like this.” Meanwhile, many seem to struggle to find ways to politely tell a person to quit their nonsense. Scott suggests “asking “how do you know what you know?” as it often does the job.” “It sets you up to say ‘Thanks, but I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.’”
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On the other hand, “Sometimes it works to your advantage to keep quiet and let them think you don’t realize they are full of BS. You may learn more about them and their real intentions than calling them out,” the book author concluded.
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