Arif Qazi/Insider;
- "George Santos is essentially a 19th-century character," one tweet said.
- That's not entirely off-base. Santos' behavior is well in line with 19th-century fakes.
- Lots of scammers faked a résumé, dressed nice to deflect inspection, claimed great feats.
If you haven't been keeping track of George Santos' lies lately, I don't blame you. It's hard to stay up to date with the reveals!
But my fascination isn't really about the specific lies — that he was a star player on Baruch College's volleyball team or that he founded an animal charity that saved thousands of pets. Instead it's the vibe of the lies, and the depth of them, the way once you start looking deeper they expand endlessly in a fractal of fraud. The lies, taken together, form an aesthetic of pure shamelessness that holds an eternal appeal.