I assume that "rubbish" or "bullshit" refer to what the other person said, so when you expand that paraphrase it turns out like this:

"What you said is rubbish. I don't agree with you and here is a list of reasons why."

Now, can you tell me what value there is in the "What you said is rubbish" part? Let's go one step further: what do you lose by omitting that part?

Mind, I'm just as sick as the next guy of the whole "we must never be negative", politically correct thought police that has been taking politeness to unrecognizable and unreasonable extremes. Sometimes there are good reasons to be aggressive or less than polite, but "sometimes" is not the same as "always" or "most of the time" or "as often as I feel like it".

> what do you lose by omitting that part?

Sure, there are many ways the OP could have phrased his response.

Personally, I don't think the approach use to attack someone else's point of view is that important, provided the attack is aimed at the message and not the messenger.

In this case I don't think the OP said anything about the messenger.

I agree with you: "rubbish" is the same as "bullshit". It's still saying "what you've said is worthless".

I don't have a problem with it, but it is the same semantics as what started this whole issue - though he does expand into a list of reasons (which isn't possible on twitter).

I think you are reading too much into the term "bullshit".

Now, granted the word can take on different levels of intensity depending on the circumstances in which it is used.

But it can and is used in general conversation and in that context it means nothing more than "I don't agree with you".

At least that is how the term bullshit is used here in Australia.

I am also Australian. :)

For what it's worth, I think most of the commentors are reading far too much into "this is an eye-bleeding script*.

I've seen people hurt by having what they've said called 'bullshit' by someone they respect; it's capable of emotional harm as well. That being said, let's not walk on eggshells.

One way to see if words are synonyms is to apply them to compound terms. In this case, "bullshit artist" is something that "rubbish artist" isn't.