User:Tom harrison/quotes

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Contents

[edit] Great quotations

[edit] The triumph of hope over experience

  • "...maybe if Mr. Harrison were able to put his objections in the form of reasoned discourse onto the talk page, his problems could be solved." [1] Yeah, maybe.

[edit] All right-thinking people agree with me

[edit] Conspiracy theory

Men with a crank, and men with a fad, and men with an axe to grind[2]

Conspiracy theory is a set phrase, specifically an idiom.

"How can we account for our present situation unless we believe that men high in this government are concerting to deliver us to disaster? This must be the product of a great conspiracy, a conspiracy on a scale so immense to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man...." - Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1951[3]

"...every time one of those Loose Change dickwads opens his mouth, a Republican somewhere picks up five votes."[4]

"There is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wind. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind." - Richard Hofstadter, 1964[5]

Proof by assertion is "often used by those holding strong but controversial opinions, particularly where there is a lack of credible evidence to back them up." As a corollary, the phrase "I know for a fact" does not have the rhetorical effect that you intend it to have.[6]

"These people (in the 9/11 truth movement) use the 'reverse scientific method,'" Eagar said. "They determine what happened, throw out all the data that doesn't fit their conclusion, and then hail their findings as the only possible conclusion."[7]

[edit] Questions that should more frequently be asked

  • Can I add anything I want to an article if I begin with "Some people say..." and end with a link to my blog?

[edit] Edit summaries

  • Do you refer to your preferred version as the "NPOV version" in edit summaries?
  • Saying that your edit fosters NPOV is pointless. POV is like sin: everybody is against it. In the edit summary just record what you did, not how virtuous you are.
  • If you are just going to say, "Improved clarity," you might as well say nothing.

[edit] "Note that..." and all its kin

Just note it! Prepending "Note that" makes the writing sound pompous, not serious and encyclopedic. Rather than writing, "Note that the Roman Empire was very large," just write, "The Roman Empire was very large." If what is left seems insipid, reconsider whether to write it at all.

[edit] "It is said..."

If it's unsupported, take it out; If it's controversial, cite a source; Otherwise, just say it.

[edit] Articles

To write correct English, you have to use the correct articles. Say The Bible, or The Qur'an, but just Jesus or Muhammad.

[edit] References

  1. ^ edit summary, 9/11 conspiracy theories, 31 May 2006
  2. ^ The Megalopsychiad, by A.D. Godley
  3. ^ Halsall, Paul (1998). Senator Josephy McCarthy:The History of George Catlett Marshall, 1951. Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Fordham University. Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  4. ^ Taibbi, Matt (2006). The Low Post: I, Left Gatekeeper. Politics. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
  5. ^ Hofstadter, Richard (1964). The Paranoid Style in American Politics. Harper’s Magazine. Harper's Magazine Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  6. ^ Secret Message: The Bonus Round. Learning Curves web log. Rudbeckia Hirta (2005). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  7. ^ Walch, Tad (2006). Controversy dogs Y.'s Jones. Utah news. Deseret News Publishing Company. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.