Thursday, March 22, 2007

Facts, shmacts

Researching my latest art project required me to look up Nazi propaganda posters. The earliest extant example (May, 1920) is here. The text translates to:
"Citizens! Do not believe that the Germany of misfortune and misery, the nation of corruption and usury, the land of Jewish corruption, can be saved by parties that claim to stand on a foundation of facts. Never!"
Yeah. Screw facts.

Does this attitude remind you of any current parties? Such as the one now in charge of the White House? As Ronald Reagan once said at a Republican National Convention (and yes, he really did say it): "Facts are stupid things."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think that one of the most important recent contributions to the lexicon may have been Stephen Colbert”s “Truthiness.”

It so wonderfully describes the marvelous new idiocies springing up all around us on the left and the right, from the 9/11 Truth movement to the latest pontifications of the Bush supporters.

Truthiness (noun)
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true"

http://www.m-w.com/info/06words.htm

The way things are going so far, I predict that the 21Century will be known of the “Age of Truthiness.”