The Glib Demagogue

Mark Carney is the consummate smart guy for stupid, uninformed people — a branding machine mistaken for a statesman by a country too bored to check.

There are words a civilization quietly stops using just before it forgets how to think.

One of them is glib.

It is a magnificent word, and like many magnificent words, it has fallen into disuse precisely when we need it most. To be glib is not merely to be smooth. It is to possess the outward appearance of intelligence without the burden of depth. It is f…