Spitting Image

The Thucydiocy Bot (@Thucydiocy) continues its tireless work to combat misattributed, distorted and downright invented ‘Thucydides’ quotations on the Internet; touched by the people who offer heartfelt thanks for its corrections, irritated by those who insist on the veracity of their version even in the face of actual evidence, and driven to distraction by the gentleman who regularly tweets a legitimate quotation from the Funeral Oration with the tagline ‘Stop Socialism’, as if this was remotely Pericles’ intended meaning. Most depressing, however, is the fact that the same ones appear again and again – especially around Veterans’ Day, when that bloody William F. Butler ‘The nation that divides its scholars from its warriors…’ turns up all over the place…

Just in the last month, however, a marginally different version has appeared (at least, I haven’t found it before 1st November, on the basis of skimming back through the last two months, but it may be older): same quote, but this time with a picture:

The very first tweet of this I’ve identified was produced by an ‘internet marketer’ and advocate of ‘freedom lifestyle’ called Terry Loomis, who hasn’t yet responded to my query is to whether he actually created it; maybe it’s an exercise in internet marketing and meme creation. I was curious about the image, and so played with Google Image Search for the first time ever. It appears on the website of the Jackson Hole American Legion, in Jackson WY, in relation to their offer of college scholarships for students from Jackson and Teton County, and it appears three timeson the website of an educational establishment in Bucharest. At least one of these must have borrowed it from elsewhere, if not both…

Anyone out there have any more information?

 

http://www.jhamericanlegion.org/services.html