If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen many of these memes. I’d like to point out some of the ones that I’m not much of a fan of. Take this one from Elder Ezra Taft Benson.
On the one hand, it seems to be intended for conservative leaning folks, those who can’t seem to stomach Donald Trump’s overt racism, and those who think Hillary Clinton is a perpetual liar. So, you seem forced to choose the lesser of two evils, so the quote from Benson makes sense. Voting for evil is still evil, right?
Here’s the problem with the meme.
Benson’s record on race relations isn’t exactly any better than Trump’s. Did you know that segregationist George Wallace wrote 2 letters to President McKay in 1968 asking for Benson to be his Vice Presidential running mate, and Benson wanted to run? I can’t think of a more evil candidate than George Wallace, and that sure doesn’t look very good that Benson was willing to team up with such an awful presidential candidate.
Furthermore, when Jack Welch of the John Birch Society called former President Eisenhower “a tool of the communists,” Benson (who had served as Eisenhower’s Secretery of Agriculture) refused to condemn the remarks, prompting Idaho Senator Frank Church to call Benson on the carpet for refusing to support President Eisenhower. The lack of appreciation for President Eisenhower is truly astonishing to me.
But if you don’t want to vote for either Clinton or Trump, please note that Mitt is endorsing Gary Johnson. Maybe you can vote for Johnson as the best of the other 2 evil candidates? http://www.timesofisrael.com/romney-says-may-vote-for-libertarian-gary-johnson-who-is-rising-in-polls/
Then there is this meme about President Lee.
This one seems directly squarely at those liberal members of the church who seem to disagree with the Church’s politics on topics like gay marriage and female ordination. The meme seems to be saying, “Get in line with the prophet! They know what’s going on! Not you!”
What’s the problems with this meme?
Well, President Lee was against civil rights for black Americans, and, as historian Michael Quinn tells it, responsible for keeping the ban in place when the Quorum of the Twelve voted to end the ban in 1969. According to Quinn, “Lee persuaded the Twelve to rescind its vote.” (Extensions of Power, p. 14) I’d say his politics were wrong on that issue, so I don’t find a lot to celebrate with this quote. In fact, I’d find the quote to be a sad tale of him standing on the wrong side of history.
But lest we think that conservatives are the only ones with bad memes out there, alas this problem affects liberals as well, and perhaps much worse. Some liberals flatly make up memes with no basis in fact. Consider this meme.
The problem? Trump never said those words. Ever.
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand Trump, but these words are a flat out lie. According to Snopes.com,
Despite People‘s comprehensive online content archive, we found no interview or profile on Donald Trump in 1998 (or any other time) that quoted his saying anything that even vaguely resembled the words in this meme. Trump appeared somewhat regularly in the magazine’s pages before he came to star on The Apprentice, but the bulk of the magazine’s celebrity-driven coverage of him back then centered on his marriages to, and divorces from, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.
Along with the meme were these words.
If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.
According to Snopes,
Notable about the image’s apparently spurious Trump quote is its purported reference to Fox News in 1998. While the Fox News Channel was rolled out across major American news markets between 1996 and 2000 (and thus isn’t entirely chronologically out of place in a circa-1998 quote), the network wasn’t nearly as prominent or widely watched until the 2000 election of George W. Bush, the September 11th attacks in 2001, and the start of the Iraq War in 2002. Before that time, although Fox News was making its way into living rooms across the United States, it was not exceptionally well-known (or particularly regarded as a right-leaning outlet) in 1998.
What bad memes are you aware of? Have you ever shared a meme you found out later was completely false, or severely out of context?
Wheat & Tares 
“…his standing on the wrong side of history…” (possessive before gerund)…
I have seen several times in my feed the meme discussed in this snopes article, that Clinton will shut down the NRA and ban hand guns.
http://www.snopes.com/nra-hillary-clinton-quote/
I also see quotes from founding fathers saying the purpose of the right to bear arms is to protect us from our own government, like the obe discussed here…
http://www.snopes.com/george-washington-gun-quote/
I have found that a snopes article is not always enough to convince people that a quote is erroneous. Some people think snopes has a liberal bias. There may be some truth to that, which is why I encourage people to critically read the whole article. I like this cartoon about the subject…
https://xkcd.com/250/
Finally, one of my favorite memes is a quote from Abraham Lincoln saying don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
http://weknowmemes.com/2012/07/dont-believe-everything-you-read-on-the-internet/
Not a huge one. But as much as I love Sister Marjorie Hinckley, I dislike how much she is attributed the following
And I have found it being posted by some of the most timid people that take almost no risks in life and I feel they seem to be scared of life itself.
And of course the quote itself has been around for a long time and attributed to many different individuals.
I’ve tried tracking down the Benson quote and all I find is second-hand sources claiming that he said it.
When I point out that quotes are false I invariably get the response, “yes, but that doesn’t make it any less true.” Maybe not, but Mormons are going to pay a lot less attention to a quote from Joe Blow than they will to a quote from President Benson.
I’ve tried tracking down the Benson quote and all I find is second-hand sources claiming that he said it. The earliest source I can find is from 2009, which should tell you something.
When I point out that quotes are false I invariably get the response, “yes, but that doesn’t make it any less true.” Maybe not, but Mormons are going to pay a lot less attention to a quote from Joe Blow than they will to a quote from President Benson.
One of my favorites is a quote by President Thomas S. Monson saying that a woman should be told she is beautiful, valued, and worthwhile (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/cb/f7/bd/cbf7bd855fa2003573b1e73d97553d47.jpg). President Monson did say it at a Priesthood session, but the point in giving that quote (which he heard elsewhere) was to convince *men* that they need the same thing:
“Many years ago, at an area conference held in Helsinki, Finland, I heard a powerful, memorable, and motivating message given in a mothers and daughters’ session. I have not forgotten that message, though nearly 40 years have passed since I heard it. Among many truths the speaker discussed, she said that a woman needs to be told she is beautiful. She needs to be told she is valued. She needs to be told she is worthwhile.
“Brethren, I know that men are very much like women in this regard. We need to be told that we amount to something, that we are capable and worthwhile. We need to be given a chance to serve.”
I’ve found the same as Tim. I’ve never had anybody actually show me a source for the quote. When I tell people its apocryphal at best, they give me some bs about how the point is really good. This is rather shocking coming from college educated individuals who should know better than to accept what is essentially no better than the hearsay of the village gossip. I teach classes that include material on Pakistan, and they always are amazed at how Pakistanis can believe all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories. Then I go to facebook and see people who otherwise seem intelligent spreading false quotes and then not caring that its false. It boggles my mind.
The meme that annoys me the most is the one supposedly from Thucydides which says that the society that separates its scholars from the warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and fighting by fools.
Its a nice quote, but its from a 17th to 19th century Englishmen and not Thucydides. Anybody who took a GE Western Civ course should know better, but of course it sounds nice. As somebody who spends a great deal of time thinking about writing about history, it kind of annoys me that people think they wise and euridite just by posting a stupid picture and an unverified quote. (LDS liberty is the worst cite for this and is borderline propaganda.) You have to work for it and being on facebook reminds me that sadly, most people who are supposedly educated aren’t too much better than the mobs in Pakistan.
Then I go to facebook and see people who otherwise seem intelligent spreading false quotes and then not caring that its false. It boggles my mind.
This exactly!!
I meant to put that quote from Morgan in brackets. Thanks for saying how I feel!:)
Since no comments address my primary problem with the supposed quote from Pres Benson, I will.
The problem is that he says you will “be judged for it” (if you research the original sources of this “quote.” Surely the prophet knew that one is judged for the content of his/her character–not stupidly voting) and he promises that even though the worst candidate might get elected “the Lord will bless the country more because more people were willing to stand up for what is right.”
That is both not well thought out (if more people were willing to stand up (vote) for what is right–the worst candidate would not have won. Further, we rarely have more than 2 candidates, and if so, they could all be some version of “evil.” They are, after all, politicians.
And, since when does the Lord bless us in any tangible way? This is one of an unending series of vague “promises” of some vague “blessing” from God. Regardless of whether you share my opinion that “blessings” specifically enacted by God don’t actually exist, how would such blessings compensate for all the harm the “worst” candidate is going to do as president? We would be better off to use our own effort/brains and minimize the harm by ensuring the “worst” of the two evils isn’t elected.
OK, rant finished
Then there’s the meme that started long before social media: Jesus’ “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”
False quotes are inherently better than true ones because they usually play right to the values and beliefs of those perpetuating them.
That’s why they dismiss the truth in favor of “Well, it’s still true or right…’
Oh, Mary Ann, you just gave my favorite one! I loathe it. Mostly because he actually did say it was easy, and light to bear. It makes it seem like suffering and having a hard time is somehow more righteous than finding relief in the Atonement. Okay, now my rant is over.
Here’s a current Facebook one. It’s a good quote but Hinckley was quoting someone else when he said it.
And a link to the talk.
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/gordon-b-hinckley_god-shall-give-unto-knowledge-holy-spirit/
MH,
While many conservatives have a problem with Trump’s political stance on issues dealing with race, this is not usually the biggest problem they have with Trump. The biggest problem most have with Trump is that he is not a conservative in a host of ways. For most LDS, this is compounded by the leadership traits that he expresses that seem to be a yuge turn off. His public persona is far from the typical church leader. Contrast this with the personal dignity demonstrated by Dole, Bush, McCain and Romney during their campaigns.
Yes, it is tough to choose between on the one hand a slimy, well connected, rich oligarch with a history of shady business deals, using the government for gain, adultery and lying and on the other hand we have Donald Trump.
el oso, I think only political hacks care about his conservatism, or lack of it. Personally, that is the only thing I like about Trump. His racism and sexism are yuge turnoffs for me much more than his lack of conservative credentials.
I think Trump has his own shady business deals, so I don’t see a difference between him and Hillary on that count.