Shyster

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A shyster is an individual who tends to be flexible with his choice of words and sensitive to the sensibilities of his audience when he discusses fiscally pertinent topics.

Translation: a shyster is accustomed to excrete torrents of bullshit over the heads of suckers, who then reward the shyster by handing over enormous wads of cash for 'safe' keeping.

The term is likely derived from the German Scheißer (literally 'shitter', but figuratively meaning shithead in German), with the word first appearing in print in 1843 in New York City.^[1] The Oxford English Dictionary confirms this German etymology, others have disagreed. Some have claimed that it derived from the antisemitic character Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, but this seems unlikely because the term appeared more than two centuries after the play's first performance in 1605, and because Shylock was a moneylender, whereas the term shyster originally pertained only to crooked lawyers.^[1]

Examples[edit]

A large number of ministers of religion fall into this category, particularly cult leaders and televangelists. This category also includes such creationists as are not completely insane, but are merely shilling for pseudoscience.

Extremist politicians, such as those in the far-right wing of today's Republican Party (Trumpism), or the CPUSA (especially pre-1956), as well as politicians who pander to extremists, are often shysters; for example, Ronald Reagan announced his sympathy with creationism to win over the fundamentalist voters, and promptly got elected, later being rewarded with canonization before being forgotten by Trumpists.

The term is also sometimes applied to certain trial lawyers, particularly of the ambulance-chasing variety.

See also[edit]

• Denialism
• Mostly shysters
• Sucker
• Charlatan

References[edit]