the.com/toadyism
Flattery with a résumé attached — ambition wearing a smile it doesn't mean.
means The habit of fawning over powerful people and agreeing with everything they say in hopes of gaining favor.
from Rooted in 'toad-eater' — the old term for a traveling quack's assistant who would publicly swallow a toad (believed poisonous) so the quack could 'cure' him onstage and prove his tonic's power. The job was pure degrading performance for someone else's profit, and it shortened to 'toady,' then curdled further into 'toadyism' for anyone who'll debase themselves to please a patron.
- origin
- from toad-eater, a quack's assistant who swallowed fake poison
- core move
- agree first, think later, agree again
- workplace form
- laughing hardest at the boss's weakest joke
- risk
- works great until the toadied one falls