Another case of lying in the guise of truth: a corrupt philosophy professor from my youth in Slovenia openly admitted his conformism, saying with a disarming smile: “I am scum, I know it, so what? “The lie of such an admission resides in the gap between the enunciated content and its subjective position of enunciation: by way of admitting his corruption openly, did he not adopt an honest position which somehow redeemed him from corruption? Not at all: the appropriate response is to paraphrase the old Jewish joke quoted by Freud: “If you are really scum, why are you telling us that you are scum?” Or, a more aggressive version: “You say that you are scum, but this will not fool us — you really are scum!” — in short: “Don’t lie to us by telling the truth — you are scum!” 521 note 25