Mental Hygiene, Intellectual Character and the Bullshit Artist
X+Y: MENTAL HYGIENE, INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER AND THE BULLSHIT ARTIST by Shawn K. Inlow When Kellyanne Conway in 2017 uttered the phrase, "Alternative Facts," it set off a firestorm. Conway had been Donald Trump's campaign advisor, and when he won the White House, she was elevated to Senior Counselor to the President. Conway coined the utterly new term to defend misleading information presented by White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, who said that the crowd gathered at the 2017 inauguration was, "The largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe." The alternative fact was easily disproved by photos showing Trump's inauguration crowd was - in fact - substantially smaller than Barak Obama's. Still, the question remained why someone would lie about something so inconsequential and it remains a topic adjacent to our subject today. I watched Kellyanne and I suddenly found myself in the Ministry of Love, in...