Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The State of the Dubious Goebbels Quotation

It’s been some time since we last updated this blog, so this will be more comprehensive than usual.

First, a Google search on 4 February 2015 provides 56,900 results.  Now, the last time we checked on 7 August 2014, the total was nearly 2,000,000.  A Bing search provides 37,600 results.  It’s unlikely that there has been such a dramatic reduction in pages citing the quotation (although it would be nice to think so).  Google is always tinkering with its algorithms, so the likeliest reason is that.

Limiting the search results to the last week, there are eighteen new pages. There is the usual wacky variety of arguments. Communities Digital News uses the quotation to argue that George Soros is to blame for the Ferguson riots.  A comment to a post on NumbersUSA uses it to support claims that President Obama is lying about his immigration policies.  Nearlyfacts.com has a long video purporting to prove that NASA faked evidence for the moon landings.  It sites the quotation as support for that claim.

The entertaining thing about the video is that it is on a site with this disclaimer:
The views/facts portrayed in the videos and/or advertisements on the website: nearlyfacts.com are not those of the site owners and operators or anyone connected with them. The "facts" may not actually be facts, but may be the ideas and or views of the owners or producers of the videos and advertisements. NearlyFacts.com accepts no responsibility for any loss of any kind caused by anything on or omitted from this website. The content of this website is presented to entertain. NearlyFacts.com Strongly recommends that everyone get advice from a competent, qualified professional in the area before taking action that may cause loss or damage to themselves or others, no matter how remote that possibility is.
Rather amusing.