July 4 is my favorite holiday for so many reasons.
One of the more recent ones is the rise of The Thomas Jefferson Quote Factory.
Its employees have been working three shifts, every day, for the last several years, churning out memes to gratify the throngs of Americans who will believe anything unsourced if it is on Facebook.
The hallmark of a classic Factory meme is that it is 100% pabulum.
Devoid of content but chock full of emotional triggers, it can sucker in gulls from Ph.D to village idiot, and from Bernie bros to Pat Buchanan paleos.
And sucked in they are. An astonishing number of friends who railed and foamed and rent their garments over 2016's torrent of right-wing memes found, once they were on the opposition benches, spreading left-wing lies and bubbling pots of stupid is really kinda fun in 2017.
As an exercise in public demonstrations of one's mental laziness, it's right up there with sharing three-year-old stories because reading past the headline is just so hard, especially when that Share button beckons.
In the run-up to the 241st Fourth, this seems to be the frontrunner for Best Founders' Fortune Cookie Message:
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
-Abraham LincolnIf you believe the 16th President ever said, or wrote, that, bring me the source.
It shouldn't take long to find. Lincoln is one the most exhaustively cross-indexed humans who ever lived. Over 15,000 books have been written about him, half of which are represented in a 34-foot tower at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
So go find the quote.
The truth is out there.
Or not.
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