CT Blue

The Trumpers may have brought the world of alternative facts to fruition, but that doesn’t mean it started with them.

Over the course of the last six months or so I’ve noticed a new type of spam in my office in-box. During that time you would be amazed at the number of awards that I or my firm have won. Or, more precisely, the number of awards we could win, so long as we were willing to pay for the honor. Here’s the introductory paragraphs to the latest missive:

Hi John,

Here at Corporate America we?re looking to celebrate the most successful lawyers from across the US legal landscape.

Following extensive research by our in-house team, taking into account your achievements over the past 12 months, we?d be delighted to profile you within the upcoming issue of Corporate America as the only lawyer within Connecticut.

We have selected just one individual from each state to be featured in the forthcoming edition, ensuring that you stand out from the competition for services to clients. And if you would like to showcase your expertise to our 135,000 subscribers and our 40,000+ per month website visitors, we offer the following for just $425:

1-page interview and profile, detailing your expertise and what you can offer your future clients.
Featured in the e-newsletter, sent directly to all 135,000 subscribers
Your content reproduced on the homepage of our website, visited by 40,000 each month.
PDF of your inclusion to use in your own marketing and branding.
To confirm your inclusion within Corporate America, simply respond to this email with ?Agreed at $425?.

Now, my first reaction to this would be to suggest that they fire their in-house team, because even I would never claim to be the best lawyer in Connecticut, or even close. I’m just not that in to lawyering, to be honest.

But we are living in a fact free world. If I want to be the best lawyer in Connecticut, all I have to do is pony up $425.00 (which is actually rather cheap compared to some of the other hucksters), and I am free to say that I have been named the best lawyer in Connecticut by Corporate America, whatever that may be. That is a fact, albeit of the alternative variety.

I’m certainly not going to pay Corporate America $425.00 to be the best lawyer in measly little Connecticut, when I’ve been offered best lawyer in America by a number of other groups. He’ll, I’ve been offered the chance to be best investment advisor in America, and I can’t even figure out what to do with my own 401k.

It’s my understanding that these sorts of “honors” have been for sale for years, but I don’t believe it was ever so blatant or so widespread in the past.

We live in a fact free world. Trump didn’t invent this world, he simply thrives in it. It probably helps that he can’t distinguish truth from falsehood, and that, if he can, he sees no merit in telling the truth when lies are so convenient, and seem to work so well.