On Friday, David Barton tweeted a video of a talk he gave to legislators in 2017 about education. In it, he gave lots of statistics and what he claimed were historical facts. Much of what he said sounded either obvious or false but I can’t say for sure since I haven’t checked it all. However, at about 30 minutes into the talk, he said something that was vintage Barton. Watch:
He showed a picture of Abe Lincoln and claimed Lincoln said:
The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
Veteran Barton watchers will know where I am going. The quote can’t be found in Lincoln’s writings or speeches. At one time (as late as 2012), Barton considered it an “unconfirmed” quote. Barton knows the quote can’t be sourced to Lincoln but he attributed it to Lincoln anyway.
This isn’t how actual historians behave. They don’t try to fool their audiences into believing something that isn’t true. And this isn’t the first time with this exact same quote.
How can an audience rely on Barton’s claims when he fudges a quote he knows can’t be found in Lincoln’s works? A fair questions is: what is he fudging on more important claims?
Student Follows Teacher
One of Barton’s warnings to legislators is about professors who have the wrong philosophy. He asserts that liberal professors will turn students liberal. The fake Lincoln quote was designed to put the exclamation point on that principle and warn that liberal professors today mean liberal politics tomorrow.
(As an aside, I have to ask if that’s true, then where did Trump come from?)
In any case, I also have to ask if that’s true, what do we have to look forward to from Barton’s students? Find a quote you like and attribute it to your favorite historical figure. Go out of your way to stretch the truth to create an impression that helps you politically. Deceive your audience for the sake of Jesus and his chosen nation, America?
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David Barton is intending to create another generation of conservative liars. Not only mendacious, Barton is an academic cheater- his methods are similar to the methods of the student who fabricates reference resource material to buttress his or her work in the research papers required of them. That is a great deal easier than actual scholarly endeavor as well as dishonest.
Me- I would rather be taught – or governed by a truthful liberal than a lying conservative. Seems that conservatives no longer even are content to twist the truth – but feel compelled to twist the lies they depend upon into a distorted parody of reality.
Sigh. Further evidence that David Barton continues to be a Liar for Jesus—as if we needed more.
I haven’t been over to Wallbuilders in years. Is he still saying things like, “I don’t have a source, but it’s something he probably would have said?” Not an exact quote, because it’s been a long time.
The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity. ~Abe Lincoln
There are a lot of wrongly attributed quotes floating around out there though many pre-date the internet. There is also misdating of quotes (did the subject say this before or after a significant event) or misleading juxtaposition of quotes (I can remember one history professor showing how an author took two quotes from the subject and put them together but without mentioning in the text [it was in the references if you drilled down] that they were written 50 years apart) or misuse of ellipses.