I always hesitate to ascribe themes or trends to years because it is more obvious than ever that there is no logical force dictating our news events. Therefore, it is wise to be suspicious of any narrative which ties together unrelated happenings too perfectly. With that said, I will always remember 2017, other than as the year Donald Trump became president and my second child was born (hopefully not in that order), as the year in which hypocrisy died, and almost nothing really mattered.

Those two latter concepts are actually quite related. There was a time, not that long ago really, when a public figure was exposed in an act of blatant hypocrisy, it was an extremely damaging, if not professionally fatal, event.

However, much like its close relative “lying,” hypocrisy has now officially lost almost all of its stigma and ability to influence outcomes. My theory has always been that Bill Clinton surviving his impeachment for the Monica Lewinsky/Perjury scandal short-circuited the once prodigious power of being caught in a blatant lie. This year, it seems Donald Trump’s presidency did much the same to hypocrisy.