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Neo-Nazi, not Voltaire, originated quote about 'who rules over y'all'

If Your Time is curt

  • In an attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted a one-liner that he wrongly claimed was a quote from Voltaire, an influential Enlightenment-era philosopher.

  • The quote was non Voltaire's. Information technology's been traced to Kevin Alfred Strom, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi who said something similar during an anti-Semitic radio broadcast in 1993.

  • The quote has been usually misattributed to Voltaire in recent years.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., attempted to take a swipe at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's chief medical adviser, with a quote appearing to come up from a deep thinker.

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize," said the quote, which was credited to Voltaire, the French writer and philosopher, in the paradigm Massie shared.

"You mustn't question Fauci, for he is scientific discipline," Massie wrote in a higher place the quote.

The aforementioned quote and citation are too circulating on Facebook. Simply Voltaire didn't say this.

The original speaker is Kevin Alfred Strom, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier who founded the neo-Nazi group National Vanguard in 2005, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to possession of kid pornography and was sentenced to 23 months in prison.

The posts were flagged as office of Facebook'due south efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The quote does not appear in Voltaire's writings or correspondence, but information technology is widely passed off as something he said. An Australian politico misattributed the line to the Enlightenment-era thinker in 2015. Thespian John Cusack made the same fault 4 years later.

Strom's original quote was worded slightly differently. He was specifically talking near Jewish people when he said it during a 1993 circulate on an alt-right radio plan.

"To decide the truthful rulers of whatever social club, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am non permitted to criticize?" Strom said.

Etymologist Barry Popik noticed the misattribution to Voltaire happening in 2012 and traced the quote back to Strom. Strom lamented in a 2009 blog post that what he said was commonly misquoted. Strom claimed credit for the quote in 2017, noting that the one-liner was "well-nigh always attributed" to Voltaire but was actually his.

Strom said he found it "kind of flattering" for his thoughts to be attached to Voltaire's name.

Massie's tweet was shared thousands of times, including by Fob News correspondent Sara A. Carter. The post was panned past many others, who pointed out the quote's origin.

"This quote is from neo-Nazi, Holocaust-denier, and bedevilled pedophile Kevin Alfred Strom, not Voltaire," tweeted the American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advancement group. "We expect better of our representatives in Congress."

The Academy of Western Australia'due south Paul Gibbard, a leading skilful on Voltaire, told the Guardian in 2015 that the quote from Strom was "not un-Voltarian" in its "spirit" because information technology captured his resistance to authority. But Gibbard added: "At that place are lots of quotations that are attributed to Voltaire that aren't actually by him, and that's one of them."

The University of Oxford's Voltaire Foundation has said the same. However, the misattributed quote has required debunking by diverse fact-checkers, again and once more.

Massie's office did not respond to a request for comment.

We rate his tweet False.

Thomas Massie on Twitter (archived), Jan. thirty, 2022

Facebook post, Jan. 24, 2022

Southern Poverty Law Center, "Kevin Strom," accessed January. 31, 2022

Online Library of Liberty, "The Works of Voltaire. A Gimmicky Version, in 21 vols.," accessed January. 31, 2022

University of Southern California Libraries, accessed Jan. 31, 2022

American Jewish Commission on Twitter, Jan. 31, 2022

USA Today, "Fact check: Quote falsely attributed to French writer and philosopher Voltaire," May 30, 2021

AFP Fact Check, "Quote most censorship falsely attributed to Voltaire," May 28, 2021

Check Your Fact, "Fact Bank check: Did Voltaire Say, 'To Larn Who Rules Over Y'all, Simply Discover Out Who Y'all Are Not Allowed to Criticize," Oct. 2, 2019

The Associated Printing, "John Cusack apologizes for anti-Semitic tweet," January. 18, 2019

Oxford University Printing' Academic Insights for the Thinking World, "Voltaire and the one-liner," March 10, 2017

National Vanguard, "Voltaire Didn't Say It," Jan. 19, 2017

BuzzFeed News, "This Senator Accidentally Quoted A Child-Porn Possessing Neo-Nazi," Nov. 27, 2015

The Guardian, "Cory Bernardi mistakenly 'quotes' Voltaire on Twitter with neo-Nazi's line," November. 27, 2015

Barry Popik, "Entry from Baronial 16, 2012," Aug. 16, 2012

Kevin Alfred Strom, "I'm Oftentimes Misquoted," January. 22, 2009

National Vanguard, "All America Must Know the Terror That is Upon Us," Aug. fourteen, 1993

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