I haven't done an update on the quotation for a while.  The last time I checked on 20 August 2019, Google reported 44,000 hits. A Google search today (11 May 2021) finds 96,000 hits.  Bing, which apparently doesn’t omit anything from search results, finds 1,860,000 pages, down from 3,500,000 in August 2019. As always, the search phrase is “truth is the greatest enemy of the state.”

At least my blog page and article debunking the quotation show up on the first page of Google results, and also on Bing, so those who are suspicious enough to check may find enough to make them dubious about the quotation. 

Tracking Report #12

It’s time to see how the viral (but fake) Goebbels quotation is doing on the Internet.  As always, I search for the phrase “truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

On 20 August 2019, a Google search finds 44,000 hits for the phrase.  About 50 have been added in the past month.

Google however, doesn’t list all hits any longer.  Microsoft’s Bing still does.  It finds 3,500,000 hits.

A Google search for the phrase in German (“somit wird die Wahrheit durch die Ausbreitung der größte Feind des Staates”) finds 57 hits.  Bing, on the other hands, finds 11,900 results.

A small consolation is that our page debunking the quotation is the #1 hit on Google.  

Tracking Report #11

It’s been a while since we did a tracking report on the fabricated quotation by Joseph Goebbels.

The last one, in fact, was on May 20, 2015. At that point there were 45,000 Google hits.  On November 25, 2016 the total is 40,600.  It would be encouraging to think citations were ebbing, but is  a result of changes in Google’s algorithms rather than a decline in use.  Microsoft’s Bing search engine provides 2,430,000 results.

Fortunately, our pages are at the top of most search engine results, so those who try to be accurate will find sufficient information as to discourage them from further spreading nonsense.

Tracking Report #10

Well, Google is providing fewer hits for the phrase “truth is the greatest enemy of the State”˘  It’s down to 45,400 hits today.  I’m not sure if the absolute number of usages is declining or if Google is simply reporting fewer cases —probably the latter.

The #1 hit on a Google search is from a site that takes the quotation from one of those unreliable Internet quotation sites, but hits #2 and #3 are from our pages.  At least anyone who has doubts about the quotation will be able to easily find our discussion of it.

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.

Tracking Report #9

Well, the news isn’t good.  A Google search on 8 July 2014 returns nearly 2,000,000 hits, six times the number the last time we checked.  As always, Google’s numbers vary remarkably over time.  Bing is at 39,000, only 2,000 above the last time we checked.

The good news is that our page on the matter is still #1 on Google and #3 on Bing, so anyone search the phrase will likely see our page.

Tracking Report #8

Time to see how the fake quotation “truth is the greatest enemy of the State” is doing.   

A Google search on 15 December 2013 produces 308,000 hits, down from 348,000 the last time we checked.  Our two sites are still #1 and #2, so who knows?  We may be having a modest effect. A Bing search gets 37,300, much more reasonable than the 17,000,000 that mysteriously showed up back in September 2013.

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Tracking Report #7

A Google search on 11 September 2013 finds 379,000 hits for the phrase “truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”  Bing, which last time returned only 8,500 hits, now claims 17,000,000.  That can’t be right, so I'll check again in a few days.  The Google total is almost exactly the same as it was back in May 2013.

Tracking Report #6

A search on Google for the phrase “truth is the greatest enemy of the State” returns 380,000 hits.  Bing returns 8,510.  These are holding relatively steady since the last time we checked on 12 February 2013.

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Tracking Report #5

As of today, a Google search for “truth is the greatest enemy of the State” returns 348,000 hits.  We are happy to report that the top two are our pages that attempt to persuade people not to use the dubious quotation.  However, we don’t seem to be having a great impact.  People tend to believe that “if it is on the Internet, it must be true.”

There are also 83,000 pages that attribute the quotation to “Joseph M. Goebbels.”  As we’ve noted before, “M” was not his middle initial.

Tracking Report #4

Google remains puzzling.  Today (22 June 2012) a search for “truth is the greatest enemy of the State” gets 243,000 hits.  However, if one searches for the phrase plus “Goebbels,” the result is 943,000.  These results are similar to Tracking Report #3.

With the first search, the lead hit is our false Nazi quotations page, followed by the unreliable Thinkexist dictionary of quotations.  With the second search, Thinkexist gets the first two hits, followed by our site.    

Tracking Report #3

Google is at times mysterious.  Last week a Google search for “truth is the greatest enemy of the State" got over a million hits.  Today it gets 242,000.  However, a search for the phrase with “Goebbels” as an additional term results in 999,000 hits.  We’ll have to try both searches in the future.

Tracking Report #2: Citations double ?!

The first tracking report was on April 12.  It found 521,000 hits for the phrase "truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” A search on May 5 gets 1,050,000 hits.  It’s unlikely that the total doubled in three weeks — perhaps Google’s search engine is finding more pages?

In any event, the trend is clearly going the wrong way from our point of view.

Tracking Report #1

We will regularly update the number of times the phrase “truth is the greatest enemy of the State” appears in a Google search.  There will be exceptions, but nearly all of the hits will be pages that use the quotation, or parts of it.


For 12 April 2012, Google provides 521,000 results. This is up from 500,000 in December 2011.