Editor’s Note: Have a question about how to sell your hand-crafted creations on Slack Tide? Don’t ask Matt. He’s a professional journalist/Seeker of Truth, not Etsy. Though he did once make a kick-ass potholder in Vacation Bible School. If you wish to submit other questions and/or potholder bids, send them to askmattlabash@gmail.com.
Dear Matt,
What is the definition of a bullshitter?
Sincerely,
Zen M.
I always hate when writers (or more often, editors — the writer’s natural enemy) bleep out swear words. It feels too much like we’re being required to play Hangman, or like readers should be hitting up Pat Sajak to buy a vowel. So though I partially bleeped out “bullshit” in the headline, in order to avoid getting trapped in your spam filter, let’s just be adults and spell it out, going forward.
I also hate when writers start pieces with “Merriam-Webster defines {whatever they’re writing about} as {whatever the dictionary definition is of whatever they’re writing about}.” It feels too much like they’re trying to fill space to meet a word count, or presenting a book report to their sixth grade class. So let’s go another direction.
The Urban Dictionary defines “bullshitter” as “one who lies out his/her ass.” Which, I have to admit, is a pretty no-bullshit definition. And one which covers about 90 percent of the people in public life at the moment, where bullshit — or bullsh*t for the more genteel among us— has become the coin of the realm.