In his essay-turned-bestseller "On Bullshit," philosopher Harry Frankfurt argues that bullshit is actually "a greater enemy of the truth than lies are," because, whereas a liar conceals a known truth, a bullshitter attempts to advance or persuade without any regard for the truth whatsoever.
One unlikely thing we can take from this theory of bullshit: if bullshit is a prime enemy of truth, bullshitting must be a very valuable skill.
You can choose to understand this in very different ways. If you are something of a utilitarian who cares less about the ethics of process and more about outcomes, you might say that teaching someone how to bullshit is excellent preparation for success in many a career. If, on the other hand, you have an ethical concern with the idea of self-advancement at the expense of truth, you might take Frankfurt's position that bullshit is the enemy.
Either way, there's a case to be made for the value of teaching students how to bullshit. In one sense you would be imparting a skill that most everyone successful will tell you off-the-record is something of a requirement. In the other sense you can expose the sly rhetorical tactics and signposts of bullshittery by showing students what a bullshit proposition looks like from the inside out.
Indeed, the ability to take something of seemingly no value and convince others of the hidden value within it is a skill one first needs to master before one understands how to counteract.
