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"Ferrier's act of gross dereliction was a 'blip', the loss of 16k test results a “glitch”? In classical rhetoric this is known as "meiosis"; deliberate understatement to imply insignificance (Greek, "to diminish"). It has a long association with weasel-speech and political fraud." See: https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1315317289026232321?s=20

"Donald Trump is in a class of his own. For him, lying is not a last resort. It never occurs to him to do anything else. And far from covering up a lie, he can stick to it: his well-named ‘base’ will love him the more for it, and will believe the lie, however far-fetched and shamelessly self--serving. Fortunately Trump is too incompetent to fulfill Orwell’s nightmare, and anyway he is on the way out, albeit kicking and screaming and trying to pull the house down with him as he goes." https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-insidious-attacks-on-scientific-truth