First Time in College and Bullshit Rhetoric

The idea of community college is a wonder, truly -- an American institution that invites all community members into the "academy" for multiple reasons, for multiple people, for multiple histories. Most students coming into community college themselves come from families without extensive academic genealogies, and we call these students as First Time in College (FTIC) -- they are the first generation of students in the families. This is important -- we know that once a parent or parents initiate the "game" of the academy, children are much more likely to enroll into college and universities.

Regardless, coming into the academy as a first generation brings some disadvantages, but not necessarily unique. This blog has addressed multiple disadvantages such as correlation of jail, procrastination, and communication skills. In 2017, we see a new concern with FTIC students -- misunderstanding the enormous academic discourse to resist what we call as "bullshit." This post starts a conversation about what bullshit rhetoric is and start resisting bullshit.

Rhetorician Jenny Edbauer Rice explains that bullshit is

irrational, troubling, dark claims. outer limits, edges of anything recognizable as argumentation, [where] we find ourselves traversing into a different kind of communicative situation.  (Rice, "Introductory" 463)

Harry Frankfurt wrote a very small book entitled Bullshit where discourse are chosen to "[remain hidden to us as interlocutors and (sometimes) even to us as the bullshit-producing rhetorics.... [Instead, the speaker is] unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are" (Frankfurt 55)


Very obvious examples of bullshitters use close-ended rhetoric such as white supremacism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, fascism, misogyny, and bigotry and conspiracy theories -- all these groups spiral down their conversations because they lack evidence, nor are concerned whether they are truthful. Rhetorician Patricia Roberts-Miller demonstrates that these people use multiple logical fallacies where their "evidence" is non-falsifiable, and find themselves overwhelmed by counter-evidence, or and reject any dis-confirmation by reliable sources (Roberts-Miller 466). Ironically, those locked in the bullshit cycle themselves label anyone who tries to show an escape from the anti-intellectualism as part of the larger conspiracy, and anyone who demonstrates additional credible resources are stigmatized, believing that "malign forces conspired to prevents its becoming known (Roberts-Miller 465).

So, how does this affect FTIC students? Though in community college we have the advantage of "non-traditional" students with more age, the average age of students is still in mid-twenties, where the brain is still developing. Further, since FTIC students have lacked a broader experience in the world, including alternative literacies, museums, bilingualism, and varied histories, they often have been experienced only a singular world view. Especially if their core identity connects with their beliefs, instead of seeing the universe as a big place with amazing varieties, some FTIC students feel defensive about their core identities. Psychologically, people (students or non) feel the stress of cognitive-dissonance, which is a powerfully uncomfortable state of being. Obviously, when stressed within cognitive-dissonance, we feel threatened. We don't want to think that colleges are threats. We should consider this for opportunities of growth.

In critical pedagogy courses, professors actually beg students to bring their lives and histories and their languages to the classroom, but this does not mean that we also invite irrational discourse, for the academy. In an extreme example, we would not invite a platonic argument for sun-around-earth explanation of the universe. An extended argument would actually be a disservice for the college student and the community which spends much attention and tax dollars.

On the other hand, we want students to write and think freely. We struggle with FTIC students being courageous with their knowledge. Students -- especially in the critical classroom where they sometimes become confused with free speech with their first voice, when students have the first chance to bring themselves with an receptive audience -- students feel that everything they say should be addressed with equal credibility. This is an inaccurate consideration for a) the academy and b) first speech. First, students would trapping themselves as scholars for later discipline and the community is not strengthened without nondemocratic values in the public sphere.

When students (and professors!) engage and start to reacting emotionally -- especially in fear, hate, or threatened -- we need to ask ourselves how locked we are into the bullshit cycle. Understand -- critical pedagogy professors have an obligation to both the millennia-long tradition of the academy and for hopes for liberated students from economic and social barriers. In other words, a loving professor must respond to bullshit. Of course, some professors have more skill than others. I admit that. But without addressing the bullshit, professors themselves will respond to an emotion -- and any attempts to question, engage, or respond to the bullshit claims are obstructed by the layer of hardened desire, likened to a disgust. But we must address the bullshit because bullshit rhetoric can be dangerous for other citizens and students. Unfortunately, some bullshitters are in fact malicious, already poisoned to bullshit, and expect others to be poisoned too.

Solutions?

Well, I'll address that in a new post, but I'll start with Rice's challenge:

Bullshit's challenge for rhetoricians is to continue listening for the call. We must create the conditions for which the call of conscience can be heard. Its blockage is more than failure. it is disgusting. And in the act of revulsion, we reject the obstruction of discourse. (Rice, "Disgusting" 471)

References

Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Rice, Jenny. "Disgusting Bullshit." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45.5 (2015): 468-472.
Rice, Jenny. "Introductory Bullshit." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45.5 (2015): 462-464.
Roberts-Miller, Patricia. "Conspiracy Bullshit." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45.5 (2015): 464-467.