Re: "Myths" and other posts containing quotes....

[Jamnt]

I love all these posts containing quotes of famous, and even not-so-famous people that really stick it in the eye of the more ignorant amoung us. In particular I like quotes of our founding fathers in regards to religion and politics, since I can use them in conversations with some Bible thumpers here in the belt.

I'd would like to make one recommendation for greater effectivness, however. If at all possible, can people who quote others include a reference to the quote?

It seems to me if more people did this we would all have better guns to fire back with.

[BurtWorm]

1. A little tip for the curious

Take a portion of the quote or the whole quote and drop it into Google, with quotes around it. The source will come up pretty quickly.

I do this when I want to research an alleged Founder's quote found on right wing Web sites. You can always tell the quote is bullshit when the only place it turns up is on right-wing Websites. There are some Washington quotes in praise of Jesus or Christianity, for example, that don't turn up anywhere else. (Evidently someone quoted a preacher one time and started forwarding it in e-mails as a Washington quote to bolster their case that Washington was a devout evangelical Christian rather than a freemason and Deist.)

[johnaries]

2. There are also several entire websites with famous quotes.

Again, go to Google and type in "famous quotes"

[AllegroRondo]

3. such as Wikiquote

a decent source, but subject to tampering like Wikipedia.

[Bandit]

4. You do know that 72.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot

:shrug:

[Cameron27]

6. 3 out of 4 people agree with you.

[cui bono]

10. Of course there's a +/- 3% error with that.

[yurbud]

5. and when you cite it, you can point out how those righty emails so often don't

like the "Did you know?" email on progress in Iraq, or viral marketing shticks.

[Quixote1818]

7. Many of the "Myths" quotes were taken out of context

This quote for example should be put in context:

From the "Myths" page:

James Madison, original mastermind of our Constitution, was an Atheist to the core who loved skewering Christianity. In 1785 he wrote, "What have been fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”

This is as bad as what the Religious Right pulls only in the other direction. If you go back and look at what Madison was actually referring to, he was pointing out the problems with mixing Religion and Politics. For example "What have been the fruits?" Is in reference to Religion and Politics being joined. Taken by it's self it looks like Madison hated Christianity but he was trying to make a case for why Religion and Politics are best kept separated. He felt that Religion and Politics would be more pure if they were kept separated. He along with Jefferson and many of the founders had a deep admiration for Jesus and his moral teachings even though they doubted his divinity. Also, from everything I have read Madison was a spiritual person who believed in some kind of God and loved and admired Jesus. He is officially listed as an Episcopalian while Jefferson was listed as a Deist.

By taking this stuff out of context we really are not living up to the kind of tolerance the founders had for all religions.

[BlooInBloo]

8. DUers neither know how to cite, nor care. They say you're pedantic to bring it up.

[BrotherBuzz]

9. Blind quotes are my bone of contention

"Some people say" allows dishonest people a lot of wiggle room to twist information.

[cui bono]

11. Some people might disagree.

;)