Have I got this right? When Colbert coined the term "truthiness", everyone understood the

[Atticus]

joke: it was a made-up word that meant absolutely nothing but sounded like it might---sorta---maybe if you said it quickly and moved on.

Now, Billy Barr coins the term "Antifa-like" and the right wing nut jobs are wetting themselves and his capo just declared Antifa a terrorist group.

Are Republicans really THAT stupid?

Is this why there are no funny right wing comedians?

[mr_lebowski]

1. More or less ... but I think it was meant as a burn on Chimpy ... the sort of made-up

word that he might use in one of his famous flub-ups.

With a dose of ripping on Faux Nooz as well ...

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

2. Meriam-Webster definition of "truthiness"

Last edited Sun May 31, 2020, 06:16 PM - Edit history (1)

What does truthiness mean?
Truthiness refers to the quality of seeming to be true but not necessarily or actually true according to known facts.

Where did truthiness come from?
In 2005, Stephen Colbert became the host of the eponymous late-night talk show, The Colbert Report. During his first show, Colbert presented the word truthiness, using it to express a kind of "truth" that is derived from a visceral feeling rather than from any known facts.

Truthiness is "What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true." It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.
— Stephen Colbert, quoted in The A. V. Club, 25 Jan. 2006

This interpretation of "truth" became a theme for the show, where Colbert rants about political and cultural issues and about pundits who ignore evidence that goes against their claims, and sometimes even invent facts to support their opinions. (Do you remember Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" ?)

While Colbert is the obvious source for the contemporary definition of the word, he is not the first person to use truthiness. The Oxford English Dictionary has record of its use dating to the 1830s in the sense of "truthfulness," but this use is considered rare now. The OED also enters Colbert's sense of truthiness and credits the talk-show host as its coiner.
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I loved etymology in college.

[Atticus]

4. Count not this day lost. Thanks for the etymological education. nt

[abqtommy]

3. To paraphrase an old saying: "Yes, Virginia, reTHUGS REALLY ARE THAT STUPID!"

[DBoon]

5. In Orwellian NewSpeak, the term would be "bellyfeel"

Definition: A blind acceptance of an idea or concept with an implication of enthusiasm for the concept despite a lack of knowledge about it; unbellyfeel is its antonym.

Example: Consider, for example, such a typical sentence from a ‘Times’ leading article as OLDTHINKERS UNBELLYFEEL INGSOC. The shortest rendering that one could make of this in Oldspeak would be: ‘Those whose ideas were formed before the Revolution cannot have a full emotional understanding of the principles of English Socialism.’ But this is not an adequate translation.

- 1984