re: #178 palomino

The entire premise of such investigations is deeply flawed.

We can’t sit around today trying to govern by parsing every word dead people said 240 years ago. It’s ultimately a dead end.

Thomas Jefferson, like most human beings, said many different things during his life that are not all consistent. Also, like many human beings, he had complex views that can’t be summarized in a single quote. AND, also like many thinking sentient beings, he changed his mind from time to time.

My reason for asking is that Alouette has often called out wingnuts for posting fake Thomas Jefferson quotes on Twitter. So when I pulled up Charles Koch’s op-ed and found he had used a Jefferson quote, I wanted to make sure I noted that and asked if it was real. It was a way for me to make sure that had the quote been fake, I would not have gotten heat for posting the excerpt uncritically. My goal was Due Diligence, not obfuscation.