What We Are Reading: Smearmonger

Roger Berkowitz

Yascha Mounk asks, what should we call people “who smear good faith participants in public debate as bigots or try to cancel someone for ridiculous reasons…” In other words, what can we say when someone smears another out of unjustified virtual signalling or simply unjustified animus. Mounk ran a Twitter poll, and the winning suggestion was “smearmonger.” So now, when someone seeks to discredit another in an ad hominem attack, we can label them, accurately: "Oh, he's just being a smearmonger. Don't pay any attention to him; he's completely discredited himself."