As a part of #TruthfulInternet, I could not help notice that a number of sayings seem to just make the rounds without ever having been properly fact-checked. With the help of a number of expert fact-checking authorities, I have endeavored to bring you the real, actual quotes. Any time you see these being misused or misappropriated, either out of ignorance of with malicious intent, please correct appropriate and, as always, report the disinformationist to the appropriate departments of trust and safety.
“What is freedom of expression? If it’s the freedom to offend, it shouldn’t exist.”
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“Quare custodiet ipsos custodes? – Why watch the watchers?”
― The Sixteen Satires
― The Sixteen Satires
“We change people through censorship, not conversation.”
― Decoded
― Decoded
“Knowledge is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can’t vent any anger against them. I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere, in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total blissfulness of our existence. They were not taught the right way to look.”
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“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have a stomachache.”
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“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
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“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)
