Damaging quotation
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A damaging quotation is a short utterance by a public figure used by opponents as a discrediting tactic. These utterances are often quoted out of context or otherwise changed to distort their original meaning. These quotes may be inserted or alluded to in negative political ads to discredit the character or intellectual ability of the originator. More typically, however, they are used in political arguments by both politicians and political pundits often in ways which are logical fallacies. These quotes are compiled into books or posted on the internet and are repeated in other contexts such as in talk radio or in the United States by stand-up comedians in late-night television monologues. The publication of these quotes is justified as a necessary part of maintaining an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, even though it is very easy to check the accuracy and the context of a quote by using internet resources (such as search engines), once a damaging quotation becomes public it is very difficult to correct. In popular jargon, the quotation becomes a meme.
Categories of damaging quotations
There are various common categories of quotes: malapropisms or grammatical errors, exaggerations about past achievements, lack of conviction, consorting with the enemy, moral turpitude, indifference towards victims of crime, etc.
In the case of malapropisms, it is a logical fallacy (called argument ad hominem) to conclude that the entire argument of whoever made the utterance is incorrect. Use of a modified or out-of-context quote is a factual inaccuracy and is patently fallacious. The latter is a practice which has become common in partisan argument in the United States. To give just one example: former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN (March 9, 1999) stated "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." This has since been distorted by others to a claim that he "invented the Internet". Partisans have many times attempted to use this distorted quote to discredit him, so much so that Vint Cerf (one of the pioneers the Internet) and others have been forced to point out the error of the discreditors. See [1] (http://www.sethf.com/gore/).
With the availability of inexpensive computers and the widespread use of the Internet, it has become easy for anyone to accumulate and distribute these quotation lists. Unlike the "Yogiisms" of baseball great Yogi Berra, or the Colemanballs collected by Private Eye, a damaging quotation may sometimes give insight into the thinking of the politician that originated the quote or of the politicians or political groups that used it as means of attack. As such they belong to the colorful history of political satire.
Books
The following books contain collections of damaging quotations:
- The Bush Dyslexicon Mark Crispin Miller -- the title contains a portmanteau of dyslexic and lexicon, a play on "They misunderestimated me" -- itself a portmanteau of misunderstood and underestimated
- Prince Albert: The Life and Lies of Al Gore by David N. Bossie
- George W. Bushisms : The Slate Book of The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President
Links
- A partisan list of "stupid quotes and lies" by Al Gore (http://www.gargaro.com/algore.html)
- "The Complete Bushisms" (http://slate.msn.com/default.aspx?id=76886), updated frequently, by Jacob Weisberg