Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
b_b · 4960 days ago · link · · parent · post: RutherfordGate: Historian Responds to President Obama’s Hayes Slur
People flagrantly and mindlessly follow misquotes and misattributions all the time. Its terribly annoying especially when the truth isn't typically all that hidden. My colleague has a poster outside her office that says "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" --Isaac Newton. I want to tear it off the wall every time I see it, because Newton was quoting others, who had used that phrase for (literally) centuries. But its become the conventional wisdom, as with the Hayes quote, and once enshrined, the truth doesn't so much matter anymore.
I am with you on that. ESPECIALLY NOW WITH SMART PHONES. It took me about 10 seconds to hear that quote, call mental BS, and look up that article.
I was reading "Debt" last night and found four major factual errors in the first 17 pages - and this isn't even in an area where I know anything. Just general historical stuff. So I had to, reluctantly, put the book down. How can you trust the author? -XC
–
That's why Galbraith coined the term "conventional wisdom". It was meant to be a pejorative for things people believe without testing or thinking about or researching. He was talking specifically about economics, but of course it applies to all aspects of knowledge.
–
My degree is, actually, in the dismal science. I like how you can wish away the world with "ceteris paribus" - good to see that the nobel prize committee, when they aren't slapping America with the Peace medal, is going after economists who model the real world.
Agree with you 100% on JKG. --XC
–