The preaching of false doctrine for profit, preferment, or pleasure. When pressed beyond a certain point it is the discourse of a madman, or henchman, or political leader. A straight faced academic account is here. Did Gulliver actually travel to Lagado? Did he really put out the fire in the Lilliputian equivalent of The White House by pissing on it? Some well meaning servants, tradesmen, and yokels at the time bought the book and believed he did. The alternative facts were marvelous news to them. Swift was happy to cash the Grubstreet check. It is hard to get satirists or sophists to speak truthfully of their lying art. It makes me wonder about Swift's sermons, too. I have often wanted to talk to Bill Schambra about it. What is the level of mental health in a DC Think Tank? What are the long term effects of immersion in pseudodoxia? Does it come with a pension? Have I been lying for free all this time, disgusted with the shrifts to which I have been driven by adversity, only to find it is now a respectable business, indispensable to the health of the body politic, and the sanity of our leader?
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