Will Hunting and bullshit in "Good Will Hunting" (1997)

When Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck) flirts with Skylar (Minnie Driver) in a bar in Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting" (1997) and is challenged on his historical knowledge by Clark (Scott William Winters), Will Hunting (Matt Damon) defends Chuckie with his own knowledge of "the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies". Will may namedrop James Lemon and Gordon Wood and identify Clark's plagiarism of a phrase from Daniel Vickers, but Clark doesn't challenge Will about an apparently non-existent historian, Pete Garrison. Clark bullshits Chuckie but can't tell when Will bullshits him, any more than many of us can when ChatGPT drops names and ideas in its algorithmic texts. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 22 January 2023)