damnum absque injuria

September 5, 2007

Does Snopes Work for Hillary?

Filed under:   by Xrlq @ 7:00 am

Snopes, the guys who “debunked” Jerry Rivers/Riviera and Al Gore’s Internet on technicalities while bending over backwards to uphold “looting vs. finding” and an apocryphal Reagan quote as an innocent “paraphrase,” once again plays the “your view is an urban myth, mine is a fact” card by purporting to clarify a series of genuine and unflattering (at least, from the perspective of anyone who isn’t a Marxist) Hillary Clinton quotes.

Claim: E-mail reproduces various “Marxist” statements made by Hillary Clinton.
Status: Multiple – See below.

In fact, as Snopes all but admits throughout the body of the post, the only thing “multiple” about the six quotes is that they are true, true, true, true, true and true. The problem is that from the perspective of a Hillary supporter, they’re also inconvenient, inconvenient, inconvenient, inconvenient, inconvenient and inconvenient, respectively. Therefore, as a web site devoted to debunking all urban legends, potential urban legends and urban non-legends that may prove inconvenient to the left, Snopes steps up to the plate in a lame attempt to explain them away. In six nutshells:

  1. The quote about taking stuff away from rich people for the common good isn’t really Marxist because she was addressing a group of rich Democrats who share her goal of taking stuff away from rich people for the common good.
  2. That line about “shared prosperity” isn’t really Marxist because she also said something good about “markets,” as long as such markets are commanded and/or controlled by her.
  3. That bit about something having to be taken away from some people can’t be considered socialist since she was talking about global warming.
  4. The line about requiring people to give up their turf to build “common ground” wasn’t really Marxist because she was arguing for socialized medicine.
  5. The line about the free market having failed isn’t really socialist because she said a bunch of other stuff, too.
  6. The line about “send[ing] a clear message” to the “most profitable sector” that they “are being watched” wasn’t really socialist because she was only attacking the big, bad oil companies, not your mom and pop’s business, which really isn’t the most profitable sector of the economy after all. Sorry to disappoint.

5 Responses to “Does Snopes Work for Hillary?”

  1. SayUncle » It’s like snopes has its own snopes Says:

    [...] Fact checking the fact checkers. [...]

  2. Phelps Says:

    Snopes has never been reliable on anything with political overtones, and has always been completely unreliable on anything overtly political. This is no surprise.

  3. Anwyn’s Notes in the Margin » Fact v. Opinion Says:

    [...] Snopes, stick to verifying or debunking facts. Your opinions are worthless. [...]

  4. McGehee Says:

    I generally only trust Snopes articles signed by Barbara Mikkelson, since she usually seems to avoid political topics.

  5. Wheels within Wheels » Blog Archive » Which way does the tower of Pisa lean? Says:

    [...] quotes (”We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good”) aren’t really Marxist. I couldn’t find anything there about her Christmas video. However, Snopes has its own [...]

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

Subscribe without commenting

 

Powered by WordPress. Stock photography by Matthew J. Stinson. Design by OFJ.