Republicans Honor Lincoln With Fake History

Today the Republican Party decided to mark Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with the following tweet.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence that Lincoln ever uttered or wrote these words. Amazingly, the manager of this twitter account has yet to take the tweet down or issue a correction. It is certainly not the most egregious example of fake history to come down the pike, but it does point to how easy it is to fall for it.

More than likely the quote was pulled without question from a website. One or two critical questions about the quote’s source would have been sufficient to avoid this little embarrassment.

But as long as this tweet is still up we can be guaranteed that it will continue to be passed on by people who extend their trust without a critical eye. That includes the president, who during the campaign admitted, “All I know is what’s on the Internet.”

The manager of the GOP’s twitter account and our president could just as easily shared the following: “And in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take.”

Help make America great again. Consult with your school librarian and devote just a little time to showing your students how to search and assess information from the Web.

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15 comments… add one
  • London John Feb 17, 2017 @ 3:45

    How could anyone believe that Lincoln or any of his contempories would have spouted that sort of Facebook-friendly triteness?

  • ed Feb 14, 2017 @ 0:50

    Come on. Get a wife, I mean life. 🙂

  • Crprod Feb 13, 2017 @ 18:09

    It would take a tin ear to think that sounded like anything Lincoln would have said.

  • Joyce Harrison Feb 13, 2017 @ 6:06

    Well, close. The actual quote is

    And in the end
    The love you take
    Is equal to the love you make

    (Sorry–couldn’t resist)

    • Kevin Levin Feb 13, 2017 @ 6:39

      🙂

    • woodrowfan Feb 17, 2017 @ 17:13

      Lincoln was the 5th Beatle? I thought that was Billy Preston…

  • bob carey Feb 13, 2017 @ 1:23

    C’mon Kevin give credit where credit is due, they did get the right day.

  • Andy Hall Feb 12, 2017 @ 19:08

    And in other news, the Department of Education tweeted a quote from W. E. B. Du Bois and misspelled his name.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/education-department-misspells-apology-for-misspelling-w-e-b-du-bois-name

  • Meg Groeling Feb 12, 2017 @ 18:07

    OMG! WTF? AL? LOL! (looking for appropriate emoji, but WordPress doesn’t seem to have any)

  • Allen Edelstein Feb 12, 2017 @ 16:18

    But what’s way worse is that if Lincoln were alive today he’d be anything but a Republican. He’d be either a Democrat or perhaps an independent. He was much too liberal to be a modern Republican.

    • Kevin Levin Feb 12, 2017 @ 16:28

      I am not even sure Ronald Reagan would be welcomed into today’s Republican Party.

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