(2017-05-12) The Meaning Of Mendacity

The Meaning of Mendacity. In Tennessee Williams’ drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Big Daddy confronts his son with the root of his problems. “What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity?

Mendacity connotes a mixture of dishonesty, hypocrisy and audacity. Short of psychological pathology mendacity is the ultimate indictment of character.

When Donald Trump fired Director James Comey of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – the very same James Comey who more than any individual on earth made Trump president – he had the unmitigated gall to cite Comey’s actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation as the reason. There is no other word: mendacity.

Comey was never a hero; he was and is an antihero.

Comey claimed that Clinton’s emails were of “extreme” interest to the public but Russian interference on behalf of Trump did not meet that standard in his eyes.