Art of BS

One of the things that I hate in politics is those that makes up ridiculous concerns to support their view. It happens on all sides of an issue though the more extreme the view, the more silly the concern. I'd like to think this happens because of ignorance, and sometimes that may just be it. But in many cases, it's not that they're outright lying - in most cases, they simply don't care about the truth.

That's the take of retired Philosophy professor Harry G. Frankfurt in his book, On Bullshit. I haven't read it yet, but he was interviewed on Jon Stewart's fake news show, The Daily Show and the comments he made were quite on the target.

He said that lying is knowing the different between something that is true and false and choosing to tell the lie. Bullshitting is not caring what is the truth and what is false. It's worse than lying because the purveyors of it have no respect for the truth, it simply doesn't matter.

In the Northern Life article I've linked to, an outspoken critic of the new Civil Marriage bill which hast just been passed by the House of Commons says,

While the Liberals made several amendments to Bill C-38 to ensure no religious group can be forced to perform same-sex marriages, Serviss is worried about the future.

“They have given innuendo and small talk to religious freedom and to churches and clergy who choose not to perform same-sex marriages, but in essence they have provided no real protection to them,” he says.

That's an incredibly false statement. From the start, the legislation has said that churches would not be forced to perform same-sex marriages. That's why it's called the Civil Marriage Act. He doesn't say anything to support his view, just that it's not enough. Of course it's not enough. No matter what the legislation says, he'll never support it. He's a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada.

And since they've lost the battle to ban same sex marriages, why not pull up the old worn argument of how the state is restricting Christain rights. Yawn.

Read the bill for yourself as passed. It can be found here.

Section 3 says:

It is recognized that officials of religious groups are free to refuse to perform marriages that are not in accordance with their religious beliefs.

Section 3.1 says:

For greater certainty, no person or organization shall be deprived of any benefit, or be subject to any obligation or sanction, under any law of the Parliament of Canada solely by reason of their exercise, in respect of marriage between persons of the same sex, of the freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the expression of their beliefs in respect of marriage as the union of a man and woman to the exclusion of all others based on that guaranteed freedom.