[history] Today I learned about the Bickerstaff Letters, and how Jonathan Swift was next level petty
just full on cartoon supervillain levels of petty bullshit
some poor astrologer criticizes him and Swift's just thinking
"time to ruin this man's entire existence"
Makes up a fake identity and predicts the dude's death and publicizes it
confirms that death
and whenever he tries protesting saying he's totally still alive, Swift just responds by basically saying "hey some sick fuck's out here stealing a dead guy's identity"
proceeds to troll him into oblivion by doing shit like sending an undertaker to his house to hang mourning drapes, commissioning a tombstone, etc.
and when the guy finally dies for realsies publishes one last letter saying the imposter has finally given up the charade
lol