Republicans: The number one reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb, and dangerous...

[Playinghardball]

[99th_Monkey]

1. Thank you Garrison!! ~nt~

[pangaia]

2. A national treasure, this man.

[loudsue]

3. I love me some Garrison.

He's a really smart and talented liberal.

[scarletwoman]

4. Where's the citation? Where was this quote pulled from?

Did he write in an article? Did he say it in a monologue? Is it from an interview? Did Garrison Keillor ever actually say this at all? How would we know? THERE'S NO DAMN CITATION!

I really REALLY dislike these damn internet "meme" things! If someone has said something worth quoting, then it's worth the trouble to include a citation to where the quote originally appeared.

What if it were a photo of Garrison Keillor with a supposed quote saying, "I've come to realize that Republicans actually know what they're talking about, and we should listen to them." Wouldn't people be demanding a citation then? Why should we accept ANY citation-free quote?

Slapping a bunch of text next to a photo means absolutely NOTHING! I'm sick of seeing these stupid things posted on DU and I'm sick of watching people take these stupid things at face value.

/rant

No offense meant to you, personally, Playinghardball. I just think that perpetuating this sort of thing is really a disservice to all of us. Just because we agree with a sentiment is no reason to relax our standards of proof.

[FatBuddy]

5. it isn't a damn research paper

chill.

"standards of proof" don't really apply to aphorisms and the like.

if you wanted to really show off and let people know how smart you are by demanding peer-reviewed internet memes, i guess you are doing a good job.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I have to agree with scarletwoman here.

I have actually seen so-called quotes on photos like this that were not actual quotes by that person at all. Granted, the ones that I have seen were in emails from RWNJ's, and they were meant to show that even liberals were coming around to their way of thinking. But it is a disservice to blindly take the word of the meme creator.

[FatBuddy]

13. and what does it really matter?

[Curmudgeoness]

29. I suppose it would matter to you

if your photo was superimposed with a RWNJ's rant. Especially if you are famous, but even if you aren't.

[scarletwoman]

22. Thank you! "it is a disservice to blindly take the word of the meme creator."

Exactly!

[christx30]

33. "The trouble with quotes on the Internet

is that you can never know if they are genuine." - Abraham Lincoln

[Curmudgeoness]

34. .....

Source please!

[scarletwoman]

11. No, it's a photo of someone with some words appended.

Anyone can take a photo and add some words next to the photo. Does that make it true? Does it prove that the person in the photo actually said those words?

DU has always been about demanding links and proof for any and all assertions. Why should we relax our standards when it comes to this kind of Facebook crap?

If Keillor tweeted those words, then include the link to his twitter feed. If he said them on Prairie Home Companion then include the date of the show so that anyone who wants to can go look up that particular broadcast.

This isn't about me being smart or not, this is about fighting against the whole "If it's on the internet, it must be true" gullibility and lack of critical thinking running rampant in our culture.

That's how Fox News gets away with so much bullshit - people don't question, they just suck it all up. Why would we want to encourage that kind of lazy passivity among ourselves?

[FatBuddy]

16. because it is crap

it is more internet static.

it has nothing to do with scholarship, the life of the mind, etc.

you are requiring standards of proof that inherently inconsistent with the project undertaken.

[scarletwoman]

20. And what, exactly, is the "project undertaken"?

To acculurate the masses into accepting any words posted next to a photo as the truth?

Since you've only been here since November 13th, perhaps you are unaware of the long tradition on DU of members requiring citations and sources before accepting anyone's assertions of "fact".

It's always been one of the facets of DU of which we have all been justly proud, as this tradition of demanding sources is one of the distinguishing characteristics that differentiates us from the Right.

[FatBuddy]

23. internet memes are not an academic exercise or undertaking

academic standards of proof, citing sources, or requiring peer review simply doesn't apply to internet memes.

an aphorism, a "quote," or an opinion are not facts.

it's easy enough to find out if a quote is not attributed properly: www.google.com.

[scarletwoman]

25. No, they are junk food.

Of no intellectual or discoursive value.

[chervilant]

35. uh-oh, treading on thin ice there, Buddy...

Unless you like your "memes" with a dollop of 'Bernays' sauce.

[silverweb]

7. I agree, scarletwoman!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]The RW loves to throw around unattributed/unattributable and frequently fabricated quotes, assertions, and statistics. Rewriting history is one of their hallmarks.

I refuse to even appear to do the same, so citing sources is critical.

[FatBuddy]

24. i always invoke the principle

of "picking one's battles" since it helps to save time.

if i expected an academic level of proof for every piece of nonsense that gets farted on the internet, i'd really have to take a good, long, hard look at myself.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. I hope this will make you feel better.

Having been called names, one looks back at one's own angry outbursts over the years, and I recall having once referred to Republicans as "hairy-backed swamp developers, fundamentalist bullies, freelance racists, hobby cops, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, marsupial moms and aluminum-siding salesmen, misanthropic frat boys, ninja dittoheads, shrieking midgets, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, pill pushers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, the grand pooh-bahs of Percodan, mouth breathers, testosterone junkies and brownshirts in pinstripes." I look at those words now, and "cat stranglers" seems excessive to me. The number of cat stranglers in the ranks of the Republican Party is surely low, and that reference was hurtful to Republicans and to cat owners. I feel sheepish about it.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/deskofgk/2006/old_scout/05/23.shtml

It doesn't explain where and when it happened, but it does verify THAT it happened.

[scarletwoman]

15. That's all I ask. I just think it's wrong and dangerous to accept internet "quotes" when there's no

source cited.

It makes us no better than the mouth-breathing forwarders of RW emails.

[silverweb]

12. See post #9 for attribution.

[MyNameGoesHere]

30. Took me one search phrase and 3 web sites.

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk.

GARRISON KEILLOR, "We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore," In These Times

You hate meme's I hate stupidity. But most of all I hate attacking messengers for what? Having a shitty day?

[scarletwoman]

31. I didn't attack the messenger, I explained why I object to internet memes.

I will continue to obect to them, for the reasons previously stated.

[Danascot]

36. Absolutely agree and here's just one example

http://www.inquisitr.com/511925/bill-cosby-im-83-and-im-tired-rant-is-fake-angers-cosby/

[99Forever]

38. It's from...

We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

By Garrison Keillor

Which took me all of 10 seconds to find out.

Lazy much?

[rock]

6. Well they are the below average half of the population

That's why they answer to the call, "Sooey, sooey, sooey!"

[silverweb]

9. Found it!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]This is a genuine Keillor quote, taken from an article in 2004:

We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore.

See paragraph #3.

[Half-Century Man]

14. I just read the piece

After spending the last couple days shifting through the verbal sludge of republican talking points to counter the arguments of family members (I'd like to save them but, it's like trying to cure zombies). To read something in actual eloquent English.....................

[silverweb]

19. An amazing experience, isn't it?

[scarletwoman]

17. Thank you. The thing is, it's not that I personally doubted that Keillor actually said that.

It's that I'm not willing to stoop to the level of credulousness that we see on the Right, where nothing is ever questioned, where sources are never demanded, where actual proof and facts are considered irrelevant.

[silverweb]

18. I know what you mean and feel the same way.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]

[scarletwoman]

21. Thank you.

[Playinghardball]

26. We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore by Garrison Keillor

http://inthesetimes.com/article/979/were_not_in_lake_wobegon_anymore

Third paragraph...

[Peacetrain]

27. Sigh~~ Garrison I am so surprised that you would use that term

Having two brothers who are deaf..nothing goes my spine more than the term dumb when referring to people who are deaf.. they do speak.. if not the spoken word, than signing.. they are not mute.. they have a beautiful physical language that has accents.. you can tell where a person is from by their slang in their signs.. there is nothing dumb or mute about it.. (I know some people use dumb as a reference to mute.. but that is just as erroneous..) just saying ..

[deafskeptic]

37. Exactly. I don't care much for the word dumb.

I can speak quite well even if I don't quite sound normal at times. I was born with a severe to profound loss. There's nothing wrong with my brains either. It ticks me off when some people treat my friends who have a difficult time speaking get treated like they're less intelligent than those who can speak.

As for accents, I remember moving to Charlotte, NC. I remember thinking why on earth do Deaf locals talk about driving the GRASS of all the things? Turns out the ASL sign for grass/hay is the local sign for truck.

I think Garrison could benefit from a little lesson. I'm afraid I can't say that for many people though.

[deafskeptic]

39. However, I a think Garrison is dead on despite the words deaf and dumb.

Garrison should have said that Repubs are the reason why the world were think we're deaf, stupid and dangerous.

The words deaf and dumb used together in a sentence is offensive to the deaf. I don't think it was his intention to offend though.

[Peacetrain]

40. True

[on point]

28. The best portrait yet of the disaster called republicans

[Coyotl]

32. Sometimes it seems the USA has just one problem, Republicans

At least in a simplistic way, this surely is the case.

[madokie]

41. Love this man

with all my heart.