@mattlehrer “intent” is a trickier question (in a sense a fabrication). does it make liars any better (in an ethical rather than theatrical sense) if they mislead themselves first? i think a relatively small share of the corrupt, harmful, self-dealing kinds of authority involve people “intending to deceive”. at an individual level (as Upton Sinclair famously pointed out) our own truth-finding processes are not independent of interest.