No, Voltaire Didn’t Say That

On Sunday, Kentucky GOP Rep.Thomas Massie tweeted a quotation that he falsely identified as originating from French philosopher Voltaire: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” The quote, intended to be a criticism of Anthony Fauci, is accompanied by Massie’s own caption: “You mustn’t question Fauci, for he is science.”

Per USA TODAY the alleged Voltaire quote actually originated from a 1993 radio broadcast from neo-Nazi Kevin Alfred Strom, who in the broadcast “All America Must Know the Terror That is Upon Us,” said a slightly different version of the quote: “To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?”

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Comments (82)
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  • Sorry to post this here, but I have (after 10 minutes of searching) found no way to solve the issue (there is no actual help with a problem email address).

    Fact Check is one of my favorite parts of the Dispatch. I just re-verified that I AM subscribed to the newsletter. Yet I have not gotten any of the updates for many months. Please forward this to someone who can fix it.

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  • Must be a slow day on Twitter

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  • Drmardy.com is a great place to research quotes

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  • Like any 'too good to check' scenario, I find it worthwhile to double check any pithy comments attributed to some famous dead dude, especially if they're a little too on-point. Still (and no disrespect to The Dispatch), I don't know that a neo-Nazi taking credit here rules out that Voltaire said it first. Still, hard to prove a negative....

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  • This is great stuff.

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  • "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
    —Voltaire

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    1. Most of the quotes you see attributed to Voltaire are kind of common sense things you might hear your grandmother say. His significant positions cannot be broken down to a single sentence quote.

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  • "falsely" - please use wrongly, or deceptively, or something else. The word falsely reeks of MSM.

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  • "Half the quotes attributed to me on the internet are not true." - Benjamin Franklin

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    1. Good one

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    2. "..and the other half, I assume, are good quotes."

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    3. Related quote: "68.5% of statistics are made up on the spot." - Abraham Lincoln.

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      1. That one is true.

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  • When does a busy congressman like Thomas Massie have the time to read Voltaire?

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    1. College.

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      1. Colleges no long require students to read the works of dead white guys.

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      2. He was an Engineering student

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