Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

Tweets

  • © 2020 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Imprint
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
    • Report Tweet
    • Report NetzDG Violation

    I don’t recall Frankfurt making this point, but bullshit functions as a mechanism to destabilize context. When you are being precise in your rhetoric and paying appropriate attention to true/false distinctions, it’s much harder to be taken out of context.

    9:57 AM - 3 Oct 2020
    • 12 Retweets
    • 85 Likes
    • Aalay Kapadia Viva Peripheral Y Pari Raja Koduri (wannabe) Ƀreaker of (the Bad) Loops nullstellensatz Avinash Vamshi H Simon Tegg
    6 replies 12 retweets 85 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        He only talks context once, “[the bullshitter] does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it. He is prepared to fake the context as well, so far as need requires”

        1 reply 1 retweet 22 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Thinking of it as yet again we descend into an tedious analysis of whether Trump ever called Covid a hoax. Meaningless question. He drops words like “hoax” into bullshit the way a terrorist might drop poison into water supply, as a general flavoring added to a developing gestalt.

        2 replies 2 retweets 38 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Here’s Frankfurt again: “[The bullshitter’s] focus is panoramic rather than particular. He does not limit himself to inserting a certain falsehood at a specific point, and thus he is not constrained by the truths surrounding that point or intersecting it.” http://www2.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f12/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf …

        1 reply 0 retweets 24 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        It is disingenuous to pretend that he is being generally precise enough to match qualifiers and claims. It’s a stream of resonant phrases that could be in almost any order. His audience is clearly listening for sentiment cues not clear arguments. It is sentiment steganography.

        1 reply 8 retweets 52 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Did he make the precise claim that Covid is a hoax? He never makes precise claims of any sort. He just lets loaded words like “hoax” hang in the air, creating a general drift of commitment. The “panorama” he painted over weeks and months was of skepticism of the pandemic.

        4 replies 2 retweets 37 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Don’t analyze his words. Analyze the effects. Eg: a supporter: ‘“It’s a hoax. There’s no pandemic. As Trump said, how many millions die of flu?” said the 56-year-old truck driver outside the early voting station in St Joseph, Missouri.’https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/03/donald-trump-base-stays-loyal-president-fights-covid-19 …

        2 replies 0 retweets 27 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Persuasion is not about making clear arguments to make people adopt specific beliefs. It’s about creating the right panoramic background of doubt and certainty in context given their belief predispositions, that they reach conclusions you want and behave as you need them to.

        1 reply 7 retweets 54 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        In late February and early March, Democrat-leaning population-centers on social media were beginning to worry, and two groups: media (all of it) and Trump, were downplaying threat as overwrought. Trump was fomenting a general skepticism of anything blue cities took seriously.

        1 reply 1 retweet 18 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        It’s insulting to argue about the precise logic of bullshit being deployed by someone with clear FUD intentions that had no intention of coherent argumentation, only unambiguous behavioral effects. Count the damn masks. And tell me this group took Covid seriously on 9/26.pic.twitter.com/DCnVMxUKIT

        4 replies 5 retweets 34 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Throughout the early days, the 2 democrat politicians I was listening to, Newsom and Garcetti, were both doing careful and serious daily briefings. Very little they said could be taken out of context. Right or wrong, it wasn’t bullshit. They played it straight. It wasn’t hard.

        1 reply 0 retweets 17 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        On the other coast, Cuomo delayed and made some tragic tactical errors, and paid for some early genuine confusions about how the virus worked, but again didn’t stream bullshit designed to sow skepticism about the reality and seriousness of the threat.

        1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Biden is in many ways like Trump (and unlike Garcetti or Newsom). He’s not a naturally precise speaker or thinker. He too is a bit of a bullshitter. But his bullshitting comes across as hair-trigger emotionalism. Not cynically calculated demagoguery.

        2 replies 2 retweets 27 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        He lacks charisma. He can’t paint sentiment panoramas. He can’t create general moods of skepticism. You’ll get a vague sense of what he believes and a clear sense of what he’s mad/happy about, but you won’t go where he’s pointing, to the extent he’s pointing consistently at all.

        1 reply 1 retweet 15 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        In general, people who think careful use of language is an effete mark of elite weakness don’t deserve careful analysis of their own words. Only of the cumulative effect of those words over time, on general sentiment and behavioral dispositions. Because that’s all they intend.

        1 reply 3 retweets 39 likes
        Show this thread
      16. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Ie if your attitude is “fuck nuance” be prepared to be judged on broad contours and evidence of strategic intent, not the details you clearly don’t care about. https://kieranhealy.org/files/papers/fuck-nuance.pdf …pic.twitter.com/jF2GC2kWZH

        2 replies 1 retweet 24 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        There’s a syndrome here you could call “stochastic offense, deterministic defense.” When his bullshit works, oh my, he’s a master manipulator illusionist magician beating the elites at their own word games and owning the libs. When it fails “he was taken out of context!”

        1 reply 6 retweets 33 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 3
        • Report Tweet
        • Report NetzDG Violation

        Trump apologist trolls like Scott Adams do this a lot. When it works for them, they are masters of postmodern subjectivist solipsism, deftly weaving bullshit force fields. The only way they can be “taken” at all is “out of context.” When the bullshit blows back, whine and moan.

        1 reply 3 retweets 33 likes
        Show this thread
      19. End of conversation

    Loading seems to be taking a while.

    Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

      Promoted Tweet

      false

      • © 2020 Twitter
      • About
      • Help Center
      • Terms
      • Privacy policy
      • Imprint
      • Cookies
      • Ads info